Ella Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
by Faliure
Summary: Get a look at the storyline if James and Lily had a daughter named Ella Lily Potter and what is changing. She was born about one year after Harry. Might go up in the next time.
1. Prolouge

This story is currently under revision. Any suggestion for the storyline are welcome.

* * *

A man with his wife and their two babies were sitting in the garden in front of their house. Despite being in a war, the two adults didn't seem to worry about having to fight to survive the next day. The adults were James and Lily Potter and the children were Harry and Ella Potter. While Harry was already one and a half years old, Ella still was only two months old.  
The family was in fact hiding and they had multiple reasons. One of them was a terrorist under the name Lord Voldemort and his followers that called themselves Death Eaters, who hunted down non-magical or muggles, their magical children or muggle-born - of wich Lily was one - and half-bloods - someone with at least two muggle grandparents.  
Then there was _that_ prophecy. The Leader of the Light and Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore had visited the Potters one fall and told them that one of his applicants for the free teaching position in Divination, Sybill Trelawny, had spoken the prophecy - the contents were that only a boy who was born at the end of July to a pair that had defied the Dark Lord thrice could defeat the Dark Lord. Two boys, Harry and the son of one of the Potters' friends, Neville Longbottom, fell into that scheme, since Neville was born on July 30th and Harry on July 31st.  
The family had to renovate Potter Manor since it was in a bad shape and James wanted to improve some rooms that could only be done with renovation. Due to the sounds made by the renovation, James and Lily decided to move somewhere else.  
Dumbledore, whom both Lily and James looked up to, had suggested that they would go into a house in Godric's Hollow, which was owned by Dumbledore, and appoint someone as their Secret Keeper since there was no Fidelius charm cast. James, his friends Peter Pettigrew and Remus Lupin and Lily had decided that Sirius Black would be perfect to be the Secret Keeper, but Sirius wouldn't accept it since he was an obvious choice and would be tortured to get the location of the Potters. Dumbledore refused to cast a Fidelius Charm with Remus as the secret keeper and argued that he had the werewolf problem and thus had to go somewhere to transform - where he could accidentally let slip the location of the Potters and since most of the werewolves were Voldemort-supporters, they could run to him and tell that he's the secret keeper. As James and Lily didn't want to be their own Secret Keeper, the only other possible option was Peter Pettigrew.  
"I _hate_ it to stay here and not being able to see the Grangers," Lily said. The Grangers were muggle friends of the Potters with a muggle-born daughter Harry's age. Dumbledore had said it was too dangerous to go outside the area that was protected by the Fidelius Charm and it was too dangerous to take the Grangers in since it wasn't known what happened to Muggles under a Fidelius Charm.  
"You've told him that Petunia would have volunteered to have the Fidelius Charm tested on her, Lily. She's one of the muggles allowed to do that testing and not in _Danger_ from Voldemort, since you didn't tell anyone else about her," James said. He sighted."I hope Peter doesn't betray us."  
"I _still_ think it was a bad idea appointing Peter as secret keeper. I have a bad feeling that he _is_ going to betray us."  
"You know we held together like a family in Hogwarts. But _why_ had Albus Dumbledore to decide that Sirius and Remus are unsuited to be _our_ Secret Keeper? And Remus could have stayed _here_ while he had transformed since you could have enchant a room to be strong enough and we could get another permanent bed easily."  
"There's literally no problem with Remus being a werewolf. And my werewolf portion is actually effective enough to have Remus here without that transformation room. And you're forgetting that Sirius cannot betray us."  
"Yeah, I forgot about that part. Even if he can tell the Death Eaters the location, he cannot tell Voldemort because of that and it is even for someone as powerful as Voldemort pretty much impossible to bring down Dumbledore's Fidelius charm. What's the advantage of Peter being the Secret Keeper, when _anyone_ from my friends could have done the same Job as him?"  
James sighted. "He should have taken your abilities in charms, Ancient Runes and Portions more serious. He should have known you were good and smart enough to do something like that. And you had experimented with. Both your portion and your enchantments would have _been_ strong enough together for a werewolf. Remus _could_ have transformed here. Go put the children into their beds."  
"Yeah, I know. As _if_ I wasn't good enough to protect _three_ people from _one_ werewolf when I managed to protect _eight_ from _two_."  
Lily picked up Harry while James picked up Ella.

"You're save with Mummy and Daddy because they always love you, Harry and Ella. Protect your sister well, Harry," Lilly said. Ella was already asleep, but Harry was still awake. She checked the runes she had written down. These should strengthen her sacrifice and force to be put on both Ella and Harry.  
Lily sighted. She hated to be at war. A Dark Lord with the Name Lord Voldemort was rising and chasing down Muggleborns, people like her.  
Then suddenly James screamed, "He's coming. Take Harry and Ella and escape. We meet at the secret location."  
That caught Lily a bit off guard.  
James said, "You cannot pass me, Voldemort."  
 _Oh no_ , Lily thought. _Peter betrayed us._  
Then a new voice said, "Avada Kedavra."  
Lily heard a body falling to the ground. Everything in her stomach tightened. _No, not James,_ she thought.  
A man, Voldemort, appeared in the door. He was holding a stick in his hand.  
Lily began repeating, "Not Harry and Ella…Kill me instead…"  
Voldemort said, "Stand aside, silly girl."  
When she continued, Voldemort said, "Stand aside or I'll kill you."  
Lily didn't stop.  
Voldemort pointed the stick at Lily and said, "Avada Kedavra."  
A green light appeared at the tip of the stick and hit the woman. Lilly screamed and fell to the ground.  
Voldemort turned to the two children and pointed the stick at Ella and said, "Avada Kedavra."  
Before the curse hit the girl, the boy rolled himself over and protected her sister. The curse rebounded from the boy. The curse hit its originator and he screamed in a high pitched voice. Seconds later there was a flash of light and the man had vanished.  
After a while, Harry rolled back and you could see a red scar on his forehead and began screaming for his mother.

At another location a person with strange clothes appeared. The face couldn't be seen and there weren't any other gender-indicating features. The person approached a door and rang the bell.  
"Yes, what do you want, Professor?" the man said who opened the door. "I want to talk with you and your wife," was the response.  
The person was let in. As soon as the person was in the same room as the man and a wife, the person took out a stick and said, "Oblivate. You don't know about the wizarding world and you've never met James or Lily Potter." Both the man and the woman blinked their eyes.  
"What's that man doing in our Room, Dan?" the woman said to the man when she came to her senses. The man, Dan, seemed to be only a bit behind his wife, as he immediately said, "Get out!"  
The person complied without any refusal.

After that attack it wasn't the only live that had changed.  
A man appeared in a street. He looked around as if he was on the run from something.  
The man, Albus Dumbledore, didn't seem to have realized that he was not welcomed in this street. He looked for something in his pockets. When he retrieved it, he held it up and used it like an old lighter. But instead of a flame appearing one of the lights in the light posts was sucked into it.  
Albus Dumbledore repeated this action eleven times.  
He sat down next to a cat on a wall on the property of the Dursleys.  
"Fancy to see you, Professor McGonagall.", he said.  
Dumbledore looked back to the cat. Where the cat was sitting, sat an old woman.  
"How did you know that I'm here, Albus?", Professor McGonagall asked.  
"I've never seen a cat sitting so stiff.", Dumbledore chuckled.  
"You would be stiff, if you sat the whole day on a wall. Why did you want to meet me here?"  
"It's about the Potters."  
"There have been rumors that Lily and James … that they're … _ _dead__ _._ "  
Professor McGonagall had to spit out the word __dead__ _.  
_ "I'm sorry, Professor McGonagall, but they are true."  
Even if you didn't know Professor McGonagall very good, you could see that she was close to tears.  
"And what's about their son, Harry? Sirius also told me that Lily was pregnant.", she asked.  
"Harry survived the attack. The curse rebounded. Even I cannot explain it. Hagrid's bringing him."  
Professor McGonagall jumped onto her feet.  
"How could you let a boy like him let live here? They have a son who is so spoiled I've never seen. His mother had to drag him along the street while he kicked and screamed for sweets."  
"To be honest, I would put him anywhere else, but his uncle and aunt are his only family left now. Also, is it a good idea to put a small child that can't talk and can't walk in the spotlight for something he might not remember?"  
Professor McGonagall shook her head.  
"You're right, Professor Dumbledore. The best idea is to put him away from our world."  
"Are you sure that Sirius wasn't pulling a prank on you with Lily being pregnant? I've got no such information about her."  
"I'm more than one hundred percent sure that it wasn't. It was three months ago when I remember it correctly.  
And then they heard a roar like one from a motor.  
Both of them looked on each side, but they didn't find anything.  
Then they looked up and saw a motorbike dropping out of the sky with a giant sitting on him.  
"Hagrid. At last.", Dumbledore said. "I think there were no problems retrieving Harry."  
"Hello Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonagall Thanks you mention it, Professor Dumbledore. There is a small problem."  
"Which?", Dumbledore asked.  
"I've found their two month old daughter.", Hagrid said.  
Both Professors were surprised by it, Professor Dumbledore on a more grave extend. He also looked a bit upset, as if he was thinking _Shit, I_ have _to change my plans about Harry.  
_ "How do you know it?" Professor Dumbledore asked  
"Sirius came along and asked what I wanted to do. Of course, I told him that I was retrieving young Harry in your order. When I tried to separate young Harry and young Ella from each other Ella woke and both began wailing. He said that I also should take their daughter. Since I didn't know they had one, he told me everything."  
Hagrid pulled out two packages.  
"They've holding hands for the whole time. Ella was awake for the whole time, but Harry dosed of."  
"That changes some things. But they still have to live here. I have to bend and change some things. I've written a letter. I'll change it shortly."  
Dumbledore pulled out a parchment letter cover and a stick. He mumbled something and finally said, "Lie them down, Hagrid. I'll come back here in a few days. I want to place some wards over Ella protecting Harry and vice versa."  
Hagrid lay them down. He looked sad. Professor Dumbledore lay the letter on them.  
"Good night, Harry and Emma.", he said.  
And then the three wished good luck and separated.  
Harry grabbed the letter with his hands and rolled over, not knowing that he was famous in the wizarding world, not knowing he was forced to leave it, not knowing that hundreds of wizards lifted their glasses and say, "To the Boy Who Lived", not knowing that his sister and him were woken up by the scream of Mrs Dursley when she wanted to put the milk bottle on the stair.

* * *

I'm not updating this story regularly. The chapters will be at least 1000 words long, but I aim to 1500 to 2000 words.


	2. Chapter One

In Number Four, Privet Drive, Little Whinging, Surrey, two adults and their son were sleeping peacefully in their beds. The adults' names were Petunia and Vernon Dursley, their son's name was Dudley. The House of the Dursleys had four bedrooms, one for Petunia and Vernon, one for guests - mainly Vernon's sister Marge -, and two for Dudley. Since Dudley had two bedrooms for himself, one was used as a storage room for any toys broken in temper tantrums.  
As for a fact, Petunia - who had a soft heart for Dudley - and Vernon gave Dudley everything he wanted - with the results of Dudley being an overweight, baby-whale-sized and spoiled rotten kid. A side effect was that Dudley didn't want to learn and so performed only good enough to pass that year.  
In the living room were many pictures of Dudley and his parents. Most of them showed Dudley as a fine boy - which was a bit ironic since Dudley had the brain of a mouse when it came to social contact. He screamed at and scared away every person who wanted to approach him but his family and friends was a special case since he was around them so often and knew how to behave.  
It didn't show that there were two more people living in Number Four, Privet Drive. They were children - siblings in fact - who grew up there but hadn't the best upbringing. They were a boy and a girl. Their features were so similar that they could be mistaken as identical twins. They had red hair and green eyes, but the hair had one difference: the boy's was messy and the girl's was as soft as silk. Another difference was their age. The boy was ten and the girl was nine. Height could be counted as a difference since the boy was larger - even if it wasn't very much - as a result of being older.  
Their bedroom was the cupboard under the stairs. Everything they owned was lying on the shelves that were attached to one side of the wall of the cupboard. Since the boy had very bad eyesight, he was forced to wear glasses. These glasses were actually second-hand ones, which Aunt Petunia simply bought when he was six because the school nurse found out that his eyesight was bad. Since the shelves were on only one side, they had to find a good sleeping position - which was required since the floor was only big enough for only one of them. They had agreed that the girl would sleep between the boy and the shelves in case the girl fell asleep and the boy didn't want to wake her.  
The children had to do chores for the Dursleys since Uncle Vernon didn't want to throw out money for _freaks_ like them. These were cooking, cleaning, gardening and removing the dust from shelves. There were many shelves where the two couldn't reach everything, but the boy found out at age eight he could intentionally levitate small objects up to one foot above the ground and managed to improve it to almost no height and weight restriction almost a year later - including his sister.  
They only got enough food for one of them for that day in addition of being starved and thrown into the cupboard regularly. The lack of food caused them to be smaller than normal - which didn't mean they couldn't grow to a size that didn't fit into the cupboard anymore.  
They only had a few clothes. The most of them were hand-me-downs from Dudley. The girl also had dresses since their school - the _Little Whinging Primary School_ \- required them. Aunt Petunia had gone shopping with the girl and bought cheap dresses for the girl - which, what the boy found out later that month, wasn't the cheapest option that was also allowed at their school. Still, the girl was bullied because most of the others had more expensive dresses.  
Dudley and his gang actually were the most vocal voice at the _Little Whinging Primary School_ \- meaning he and his gang had the control of all pupils of the school. Since Dudley hated the Potter siblings they were outcast - it was easy for them to outcast them as the boy wore Dudley's oversized clothes and the girl wore cheap dresses.  
The children would be punished for not doing their chores in time, being better than Dudley in school and showing their _freakishness_. Since Dudley didn't want to learn the two children had only a small margin if they didn't want to do that school year again.  
The boy found out at age six that Dudley hated places with books and thus libraries when he hid in the _Little Whinging Library_ for that afternoon. Since then both of them found regularly refuge in the library and read the books there.  
The librarian, a nice woman who wasn't affected by Aunt Petunia's gossip about the two of them, often talked with the two of them and answered almost every questions she got and and always had books for reference in her mind - the only ones she couldn't she knew where to search in the library to find the answer.  
The children were not allowed to ask questions at the Dursleys. The boy found it out when he asked about his parents - they died in a car accident while driving drunken and that was the only answer he got. They were too happy when they found out that they could ask the librarian almost anything.  
The boy found out he could memorize almost anything by skimming the text over the length of a half year. He then found out that the girl had the same gift. This was the reason that they had memorized the content of almost every book in the _Little Whinging Library_ by the time the boy was ten. The boy convinced the girl to do the homework twice - once to not anger the Dursleys and once normal.  
Suffering the same way had the two children grow together and grow up. They had nicknames for each other: _Angel_ for the girl and _Hero_ for the boy. The children were named Harry and Ella Potter.  
The Dursleys were acting different around Ella. Harry always got hit harder than Ella and Ella got exercise books and pencils more easily than Harry - something Harry was a bit jealous about. Aunt Petunia gave Ella a diary on her ninth birthday - something she didn't do the same to Harry.  
They were currently lying in the cupboard in their normal sleeping position. Harry was already awake thinking about the last day while Ella still slept. Yesterday a boy out of Ella's class had insulted her badly and hit her. She then ran away. The older brother instincts instantly kicked in and Harry aimed at the boy but the boy dodged the fist. A teacher had seen that and gave Harry detention for that afternoon. Harry had searched for Ella in the library and found her in a corner. He managed to convince her to go to the Dursleys. When she was in her cupboard she had broken down crying. Ella cried herself to sleep and Harry fell asleep a while after her. They hadn't gotten any diner because they didn't do any chores.  
Suddenly there was a knocking on the cupboard door. "Get up! Now! The bacon is on the stove.", the shrill voice of Aunt Petunia said.  
Since Harry was already awake he had heard what Aunt Petunia said and moaned. Why did it always hit them? They didn't do anything wrong. He put on his glasses.  
Harry pressed his arms in Ella's chest and whispered into her ear, "Wake up and rise, my angel." He kissed Ella on the forehead. Ella's eyelids opened.  
"Morning. What do we have to do, Harry?" a half asleep Ella said.  
"Cooking. It's your turn today, Ella."  
Then loud steps were heard and the voice of their cousin Dudley, saying happily, "We're going to the zoo! We're going to the zoo!"  
When Harry opened the door to go out of the cupboard, Dudley pushed Harry back in. He unfortunately fell onto Ella.  
"Ouch!", Ella complained.  
"Dudley had pushed me back in.", Harry defended himself.  
"Let's make him feel bad for that.", Ella said, even they couldn't do that.  
"Yeah. Great idea."  
Harry stood up and helped Ella up.  
"Are you okay, Ella?" Harry asked.  
"Of course I am. You are too concerned about me, Harry. Think of something else."  
"I'm your big brother, Ella. I have to look after you," Harry said and Ella giggled and rolled her eyes.  
Harry and Ella walked out of the cupboard. Ella looked after the bacon.

When Ella had finished cooking the bacon, Aunt Petunia went to fetch Dudley.  
Aunt Petunia walked in with her hands over Dudley's eyes. She and Uncle Vernon began to sing "Happy Birthday to you". When they finished, Dudley began to count his presents.  
Dudley finished counting with a red face. "Thirty-six! That's two less than last year."  
"Sweetie, you haven't seen the present under the big present of Aunt Marge.", Aunt Petunia said.  
"That's thirty-seven. That's still less than last year."  
"Sweetie, I'll buy you two more presents when we are out. Two more."  
Dudley had trouble with Numbers greater than Thirty-six, so out of his mouth came, "That's thirty … thirty…"  
"Thirty-nine."  
Uncle Vernon came and said, "A good Boy. When you are big, you gonna be leading my company."  
Then the phone rang. Uncle Vernon went to answer the call. When he came back, he looked serious and displeased.  
"Mrs Figg has broken her leg. She stumbled over one of her cats. She can't take in Harry and Ella."  
"What's with your sister, Vernon? Could Marge take them for that day?"  
"It's not a good idea. She hates them."  
Dudley began crying loudly. Even an idiot could see that he was pretending to cry.  
Aunt Petunia came over, hugged him and said, "Don't cry, Duddykins, I won't let them spoil your birthday."  
"I... don't... want... them... to... come...", he said.  
"The car's new, so sitting in there would be no option.", Uncle Vernon said.  
"We could stay here.", Harry said.  
"With the house in ruins and both of you gone? That's not an option.", Uncle Vernon said.  
Nothing could go wrong today. They promised each other to keep everything quiet as possible. Since they spent somewhere else than the cupboard or Mrs Figg, they thought, it could be worth. One thing they didn't know was that they would be in the most serious trouble.

When they heard that one of Dudley's friends would come over to come with them to the zoo, both of them it was hard to keep that promise. They squeezed into the car, with Harry and Ella sitting in the back.  
Uncle Vernon was complaining about the cars when Harry said, "I had a dream with a motorbike. It was flying."  
This angered Uncle Vernon so hard that he nearly drove into the car in front of them. When they finally stood, Uncle Vernon screamed, "MOTORBIKES DON'T FLY!"  
"I know they don't.", Harry said. "It just was a dream."  
Uncle Vernon calmed down.

When they entered the zoo, they've bought ice-cream for everyone, even Harry and Ella.  
Dudley then ran to the reptile house. Harry and Ella sighted. They went after Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia and hoped to get no punishments. When they caught up with Dudley, Dudley was standing in front of a snake.  
He said, "Get it moving, dad."  
Uncle Vernon hammered against the glass pane. The snake didn't move.  
Uncle Vernon hammered again against the glass pane, but harder now. The snake still didn't move.  
"The snake is boring. Let's go somewhere else.", Dudley said.  
Harry and Ella went to the glass. Ella thought that the snake might have died because of the boredom.  
Suddenly the head of the snake moved.  
Harry looked at it surprised.  
"What's wrong, Harry?" Ella asked.  
"The snake said that it gets this every time," Harry said with a very serous face  
"No way. You're kidding, Harry."  
"I'm telling the truth."  
Harry exchanged some hissing noises with the snake.  
"It's a Boa Constructor. The species comes from Brazil, but the snake itself was bread in captivity.", Harry said.  
"I'm sorry. Never seen your origin land.", Ella said. She felt bad for the snake because it hadn't seen Brazil in its life.  
A shout made all three jump.  
"DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T __BELIEVE__ THAT IT'S DOING!"  
Dudley came and pushed both of them out of the way.  
In a split of a second, when Dudley and Piers were pressing against the glass, it vanished and both plunged into the tank.  
The Boa Constructor hissed something.  
Because of the trouble of the two boys falling into the snake tank, it was easy for the boa constructor to escape.  
When Dudley tried to escape, the glass pane had reappeared.  
Ella didn't know who caused the glass pane to vanish, but she and Harry were in trouble.

The zoo director apologized heavily to the Dursleys although he couldn't explain how a glass pane could simply vanish into thin air and then reappear, although he suspected it broke down due to the force applied to the glass. Aunt Petunia had instantly screamed at the director that her _Dudders_ hadn't done anything wrong and it must have been the two _freaks_ Harry and Ella  
Dudley and Piers was finally rescued out of the thank after half an hour. It was the worst half hour he had experienced. He had fallen into the pond in the tank and thus all of his clothes were wet. He got warped into a towel.  
As soon as they've got home, Uncle Vernon cornered them and said, "Go into your cupboard. _Now_."  
Harry and Ella instantly did. "At least we got some ice-cream," Ella said after Uncle Vernon locked the door.  
"It definitely was the best birthday of Dudley we had without being sent to Mrs Figg."  
"True. What was wrong with that snake? You seemed surprised."  
"It spoke with me. You won't believe me anyway, Ella."  
There came no response. Harry realised that Ella had to be sleeping. Even her grip around Harry was suggesting it.  
"Sweet dreams, my angel," Harry said and closed his eyes.

They were the next day in the cupboard and were bored. It was for the punishment for vanishing the glass of the snake tank.  
"I don't know what we did wrong that day, Harry," Ella said.  
"It must have to do something with the fact that I can levitate things on shelves," Harry said. Nobody could fault that logic. He felt Ella nodding.  
"And it must be something you could lern. Look at yourself, Harry. You could do it."  
"It must also be emotion-driven. You, Ella, didn't master it but managed to do it under strong emotions."  
But they didn't come further than that. The only conclusion was that the people that also had their gifts had to keep itself secret or the other people simply didn't talk about it.  
"It's strange why everyone has it and Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon act like that." Harry said when they came to that conclusion. They then decided that it was most likely kept secret. But which Community wanted to be secret and managed to stay secret? Somebody should find out something about the community because of children like Harry and Ella.  
Harry had managed to get onto the roof of the school after being chased down by bullies. He couldn't explain how it had happened. Another time Aunt Petunia sent him to the barber and he came back with seemingly uncut hair. Aunt Petunia had cut them with a pair of kitchen scissors. Harry felt embarrassed of the haircut - the next day they were back normal.  
Ella had managed to push a girl much harder than she should be capable after that girl had managed to anger Ella. The girl flew into the tree behind her and was seriously injured.  
Harry suddenly had to think of a girl he and Ella worked with in the library. She had bushy brown hair and brown eyes and her name was Hermione. They only studied together because they were bullied elsewhere. They were lucky that Hermione's bullies also didn't like the library but Harry guessed that it was Dudley and his gang.  
Then something hit him. He knew Hermione was in his year but didn't get to know her over the years. It was normal for them to change the school after this year and she probably would go to another school where they don't see each other anymore. The only happy thing would be if Uncle Vernon or Aunt Petunia signed Ella to the school she was going - but they may not be able to ask her before the end of the school year.


	3. Chapter Two

The Incident with the Boa Constructor caused the longest time in the cupboard. When Harry and Ella were finally allowed to leave the cupboard, the summer break had already started. Dudley had broken several of his presents. Harry wasn't in the best mood when he realised that the summer break had begun - Hermione might already be away from Little Whinging and close to the school she attended.  
They weren't too happy that it was summer break - the _Little Whinging Library_ had normal opening times except in summer break. This meant that the main thing they could do was running away from Dudley and his gang - who were chasing the Potters. Additionally nobody wanted to stand up or disagree with Dudley and his gang, so they couldn't expect help from anyone from school.  
Lucky for them, this year had been the last for Dudley and Harry for their school, so they had to change schools. Uncle Vernon decided to put Dudley onto his old school and Harry to another local school. So they had hope to get at least some friends.  
Uncle Vernon went to London to buy the school uniform for Dudley. The school uniform included a stick for the children for punching each other for bad behavior. They didn't expect that the situation escalated.  
One day in the summer break, they were sitting for breakfast at the table, they heard the letters dropping to the ground.  
"Get the Mail, Dudley.", Uncle Vernon said  
Dudley said, "Make Ella get it."  
"Get the Mail, Ella"  
"Make Dudley get it."  
"Punch her with the stick, Dudley."  
Ella dodged the stick and went to the front door. Three things had arrived: One postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, a letter for Uncle Vernon, probably a bill and – _a letter for Harry_.  
"This can't be. You're dreaming, Ella," she thought.  
Ella's heart beat faster. Strange things occurred around them, but they never – _never_ – ever got even a single letter. She picked it up. It was heavy and likely made out of parchment.  
The address on the envelope was unmistakeably:

 _Mr H. Potter  
The Cupboard under the Stairs  
4 Privet Drive  
Little Whinging  
Surrey  
_

"Hurry up, girl!", Uncle Vernon said. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?"  
He chuckled on his own joke.  
Ella took all the letters and lay the two for Uncle Vernon in front of him. She gave the letter for Harry to him.  
Harry made big eyes when he saw the letter. A while later he had turned the letter and was opening it.  
Uncle Vernon opened the bill and snorted. He looked at the postcard and said, "Marge's ill. Ate a funny whelk."  
"Dad!", Dudley said. "Dad, Harry got something."  
He was unfolding the letter which looked to be written on the same parchment as the envelope. Uncle Vernon ripped it out of Harry's hands.  
"That's mine", Harry said trying to get it back  
"Who's writing you?", Uncle Vernon asked opening it.  
When he read it, his face went from red to green faster than a traffic light. Within seconds it had the greyish color of porridge.  
"P–P–Petunia", he gasped  
Dudley tried to get it, but Uncle Vernon held it out of his reach. Ella pushed herself on Dudley and nearly got it. Dudley didn't seem to be interested that Ella had used him to get the letter. Aunt Petunia took the letter curiously and read the first line.  
"Vernon! Oh my goodness – Vernon!"  
They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harry, Ella and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored, He gave his father a sharp tap with his stick.  
"I want to read that letter", he said loudly.  
"I want to read it," Harry said furiously, "as it's _mine_ "  
Ella stood there staring desperately for something to happen.  
"Get out, both of you"  
Harry didn't move.  
"I WANT MY LETTER!", he shouted  
"Let _me_ see it!", demanded Dudley.  
"OUT!", Uncle Vernon said as he took both Harry and Dudley and threw them into the hall.  
Uncle Vernon threw the letter into the fire.  
They apparently had forgotten that Ella still was there as they began to talk.  
"Vernon," Aunt Petunia said in a quivering voice, "look at the address – how could they know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"  
"Watching – spying – might be following us," Uncle Vernon said.  
Then he realized that Ella was still present and said, "Ella, get out! Now!"  
Ella was at the door within five seconds and opened it.  
Harry was sitting on the floor and Dudley was standing close to the door.  
Dudley said smiling, "Now they have thrown you out."  
Seconds later the red face of Uncle Vernon.  
He said, "Dudley, go to your room and Ella and Harry to your cupboard now!"

When Harry and Ella were in their cupboard, they thought about the letter. They were already lying in the cupboard with their arms around each other. Ella's head was resting on Harry's chest.  
"Why don't let they us read the letter, Harry?", Ella asked  
"I don't know. It must have been something that they were really scared of."  
Ella looked at Harry.  
"I don't understand it."  
"If they just didn't want us to read the letter, then why didn't they give it to Dudley, my angel?"  
Harry gave a kiss Ella's forehead.  
He was right. It made no sense to burn it if they weren't scared of the letter. But then she remembered that Harry didn't know that the letter was burned.  
Ella began to cry and pressed her face into Harry's chest. Harry immediately began rubbing comfortingly Ella's head with his hand. That made her to even cry harder. One thing Ella didn't know was that it hurt Harry when he saw Ella crying.  
"Don't cry, my little angel.", Harry said.  
"Harry, they've burned the letter," she said between sobs.  
Harry immediately stopped rubbing Ella's Head. He obviously was shocked what the Dursleys had done with his – _his –_ letter.

In the evening, Uncle Vernon visited Ella and Harry in the cupboard – something he had never done before.  
"Where's my letter?", Harry asked, pretending not to know it was burned. "Who is writing me?"  
"No one. It was addressed to you by mistake." he said, "I've burned it."  
"It was _not_ a mistake!", Harry responded.  
"SILENCE!", yelled Uncle Vernon and put on a smile, that clearly was forced.  
"As I see, the cupboard is becoming to small for you and Ella. I think you should move into Dudley's second bedroom."  
Harry and Ella didn't complain. At _least_ they got a bigger room than the cupboard.  
Harry packed everything they needed in a small cardboard box and carried it up.  
"Do you know if they put beds for us in there?", Ella asked Harry.  
"We have to see," was the answer from her big brother.  
Harry and Ella entered the room and looked around. There were many of Dudley's broken things on shelves. Harry got the urge to either repair it or throw it away.  
"Who's going to sleep where?" Ella asked and pointed at the beds. It only was a mattress on the ground and a worn bed.  
"You sleep in the bed and I sleep on the mattress on the ground," Harry responded. He sighted  
"Let's hope that Dudley and I don't have to share the room," he said.

Later that evening Dudley yelled and insulted his parents to get his second bedroom back from the freaks, as Dudley nicknamed Harry and Ella. Even with closed door and their pillow pressed on their ears, they still could hear every word Dudley screamed.  
Harry managed to repair in that time an alarm clock and set it for early to fetch it before one of the Dursleys got the letters.

When it was calm enough to sleep for both of them, they lay about a half hour trying hard to fall in sleep.  
"I cannot sleep, Harry," Ella finally said.  
"It's not better on my side," was the response. "I'm missing you, Ella."  
Ella stayed in her bed since she noticed a movement in Harry's bed.  
Seconds later Harry was standing near Ella's bed and sat himself onto the edge of it, close to Ella's head.  
"My hero came to me," Ella said smiling, despite knowing that Harry wouldn't see the smile.  
Harry kissed Ella onto the forehead.  
"Stop smiling, my angel," Harry said.  
"How do you know that I smile, my hero? I don't smile," Ella responded, still smiling.  
"I just guessed it, my angel. And your question confirmed it."  
"Is my hero smiling?"  
"The answer is yes, my angel. Does my angel have something against the suggestion if I slept in her bed?"  
Ella giggled.  
"No, my hero."  
Harry gave Ella a kiss onto her forehead.  
"Somehow that answer didn't surprise me, my angel."  
Ella rolled on one side to give Harry some space. He pulled the blanket up and crawled under it.  
Harry surprised Ella with grabbing her under her axle. But it wasn't the only one. Instead of kissing her as usual on the forehead, he kissed her on the cheek. Ella felt a warmth spreading from the inside of her body.

On the next morning Harry and Ella were woken up by the repaired alarm clock.  
Harry sneaked down and a while later there was a scream coming from below.  
In the other rooms the lights lit up.  
Ella didn't want to move.  
After a few minutes Harry entered their room with his head hanging.  
"Didn't get it. Uncle Vernon ripped them apart. And he nailed some planks onto the letter box to force them to give it up."

On Friday, no fewer than twelve letters arrived for Harry. As they couldn't go through the letter–box they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced through the small window of the downstairs toilet. Ella raised an eyebrow when she saw the mess but Uncle Vernon was faster getting the letters out of Ella's hand than she in her room.  
Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out.

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty–four letters to Harry found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living–room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food mixer.  
"Who on earth wants to talk to _you_ this badly?", Dudley asked Harry in amazement.  
"I don't know how, but they somehow know that I didn't read my first letter because of a certain person," Harry said glaring at Dudley

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.  
"No post on Sundays", he reminded happily as he spread marmalade on his newspaper, "no damn letters today –"  
Something cane whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next Moment, thirty of forty letters cane pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one –  
"Out! OUT!"  
Uncle Vernon seized Harry around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Ella, Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out, Uncle Vernon slapped the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.  
"I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!", Uncle Vernon said.  
Ten minutes later they were heading towards the motorway. Uncle Vernon drove and drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now ant then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.  
Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley, Harry and Ella had to share a room with only two beds. Dudley snored but Ella stayed awake. It didn't seem that Harry was sleeping either.

They had just finished breakfast when the owner of the hotel came to them.  
"Is someone of you Mr H. Potter? I've got about one hundred of them at the front desk."  
Harry tried to grab it but Uncle Vernon punched the hand down. The owner looked shocked.  
"I'll take them", Uncle Vernon said.

Several hours later they were at the sea. Uncle Vernon had brought them some rations to survive and a long package. They had to get to the house that was on a cliff surrounded by a rough sea. Uncle Vernon had managed to force Harry and Ella to row to the cliff. Since Ella wasn't as strong as Harry, Harry had to be careful to not use his full strength.  
When they managed to get into the house, Uncle Vernon said, "Petunia and I are going to sleep in that room" – he pointed to another door – " and Dudley is going to sleep on the sofa and Harry and Ella are going to sleep on the ground. Here are your blankets."  
There were two different blankets. When Ella realized that they had to share one, Dudley had already grabbed the warmer one of them.  
"Looks like we have to share. _Again_.", Harry said.  
Ella fetched the remaining blanket and they laid themselves on the sandy ground, the blanket covering both of them.  
Harry pulled her to him so her face was on the same height as his. They slept in this position for the last days.  
"Want a goodnight kiss, Ella?", Harry whispered to her  
"Yes. Please on the forehead," was the whispered response.  
They had to bend each other, but Harry still managed to kiss Ella on the forehead.  
The sea was banging at the cliff so hard that Ella and Harry couldn't sleep. Harry asked after both of them tried hard to fall to sleep, "Can you make me a birthday cake, Ella?"  
Ella had forgotten that tomorrow was July 31st, Harry's birthday.  
"A cake in the sand, my hero?", Ella asked already knowing the answer.  
There was a short flash and Ella could see a grin in Harry's face. "Falling into old habits? Yes, one in the sand, my angel."  
Ella drew one in the sand.  
Ella and Harry watched the lightened dial of Dudley's watch  
Five minutes to go. Ella heard something creak outside. She hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although she might be warmer if it did. For minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive was full of letters when they returned that Harry or Ella be able to steal one somehow.  
Three minutes to go. Was it the sea, slapping so hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was the funny crunching sound? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?  
One minute to go and Harry would turn eleven. Thirty seconds … twenty … ten – nine – eight – seven – six – five – four – three – two – one -  
"Happy birthday, Harry," Ella said, pressing herself close to him.  
"Thanks, Ella"  
BOOM.  
The whole shack shivered and both Harry and Ella sat bolt upright, starring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.


	4. Chapter Three

BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake  
"Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.  
There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands – now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.  
"Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you – I'm armed!"  
There was a pause Then –  
SMASH!  
The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.  
A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glaring like black beetles under all the hair  
The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.  
"Couldn't make us a cup of tea, could yeah? It's not been an easy journey…."  
He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.  
"Budge up, you great lump," said the stranger.  
Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.  
"And here are Harry and Ella!" said the giant.  
Harry and Ella looked up into the firce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.  
"Last time I saw you, you were only a baby," said the giant. "You look a lot like your dad, but you've got your mum's eyes, Harry. Exactly opposite with you, Ella."  
Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping voice.  
"I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"  
"Ah, shut up, Dursley, you great prune," said the giant. He reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it to the a corner of the room.  
Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.  
"Anyway – Harry," said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "A very happy birthday to you. Got something for you here – I might sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."  
From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Harry was clearly trembling when he opened the box. Ella managed to get a look on the inside. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with _Happy Birthday Harry_ written on it in green icing.  
Harry looked up at the giant. He seemed to struggle to say something and then managed to ask, "Who are you?"  
Ella thanked that Harry had asked this question since it was on her tongue for a while.  
The giant chuckled.  
"True, I haven't introduced myself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds of Hogwarts."  
He held out an enormous and shook Harry's whole arm.  
Ella thought, _This guy has no respect for women._ But then she remembered how bad it was for Harry and didn't want to do the same.  
"What about that tea then, eh?", he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no o some stronger if you've got it, mind."  
His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled crisp packets in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. It filled the while damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.  
The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs and a bottle of some amber liquid which he tool a swig from before starting a tea. Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage. Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."  
The giant chuckled darkly.  
Your great pudding of a son doesn't need to get fatter any more, Dursley, don't worry."  
He passed the sausages to Harry and Ella, who were so hungry they had never tasted anything so wonderful, but they couldn't take their eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, Harry said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are.'  
The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.  
"Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. And like I have told you, I'm the keeper of keys at Hogwarts – you know everything about Hogwarts, of course."  
Harry and Ella looked at each other with confusion.  
"Er – no," said Ella and Harry in unison.  
Hagrid looked shocked.  
"Sorry," Harry said quickly  
" _Sorry?_ " barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them to be sorry! I knew you weren't getting your letters but I never thought you wouldn't know about Hogwarts, for crying out loud. Did you never wonder where your parents learnt it all?"  
"All what?", asked Harry.  
"ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait just a second."  
He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were covering against the wall.  
"Do you mean to tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, " that this boy – this boy! – doesn't know about – about ANYTHING?"  
Ella thought this was going a bit far. Harry had been to school, after all, and his marks weren't bad.  
"I know _some_ things.", he said. "I can, you know, do math and stuff."  
But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About our world, I mean. _Your_ world. _My_ world. _Your parents' world._ "  
"What world?"  
Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.  
"DURSLEY!" he boomed.  
Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble". Hagrid stared wildly at Harry.  
"But you must about your mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're _famous. You're famous._ "  
Ella was shocked. The Dursleys hadn't told them _anything_ about their parents. And they had the right to know _everything_ they wanted to know.  
"What? My – my mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"  
"You don't know … you don't know …", Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry with a bewildered stare.  
"You don't know what you are?", he said finally.  
Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.  
"Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the boy and the girl anything!"  
A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.  
"You never told them? Never told him what was in the letter Dumbledore left for them? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! And you've kept it from them all these years?"  
"Kept _what_ from me?", said Harry eagerly.  
"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon.  
Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.  
"Ah, go boil your heads, both of you," said Hagrid. "Harry and Ella – you're a wizard and a witch."  
There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.  
Ella was confused. She _never_ was a witch. That was _im_ possible. Hagrid was _lying_. She looked over to Harry. He had a face with an equally confused expression.  
"I'm a _what_?" gasped Harry.  
"A wizard, of course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "and a really good one, I'd say, once you've trained up a bit. With a mum and dad like yours, what else would you be? And I reckon it's about time you read your letter, Harry."  
Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to _Mr H. Potter, The_ _Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea._ He pulled out the letter. Ella managed to get a look at the letter. It read:

 _HOGWARTS SCHOOL OF WITCHCRAFT AND WIZARDRY_

 _Headmaster: Albus Dumbledore  
(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock,  
Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)_

 _Dear Mr Potter,_  
 _We are pleased to inform you that you have a_ _p_ _lace_ _at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment._  
 _Tern beg_ _in_ _s on 1 September. We await your owl by no later than 31 July._

 _Yours sincerely,_

 _Minerva McGonagall_  
 _Deputy Headmistress_

Questions exploded inside Ella's head like fireworks and she couldn't decide which to ask first. Luckily Harry managed to stammer, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"  
"Galloping Gorgons, that reminds me.' said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl - a real, live rather ruffled-looking owl - a long quill and a roll or parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note which Ella could read upside-down:  
 _Dear Mr Dumbledore,_  
 _Given Harry his letter. Ella_ _is_ _still_ _with him. Taking Harry to buy his things tomorrow. Weather's horrible. Hope you're well._  
 _Hagrid_  
Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door and threw the owl out into the storm. Then he came back and sat down as thought this was as normal as talking on the telephone.  
Ella realized her mouth was open and closed it quickly. She saw Harry closing his.  
"Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.  
"He's not going," he said.  
Hagrid grunted  
"I'd like to see a great Muggle like you stop him," he said.  
"A what?" Ella asked.  
"A Muggle," said Hagrid. "It's what we call non-magic folk like them. And it's your bad luck you grew up in a family of the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."  
"We swore when we took them in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of them! Wizard, indeed!"  
"You knew?" said Ella. "You knew I'm a - a witch?"  
"Knew!", shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. " _Knew!_ Of course we knew! How could you not be, my dratted sister being what she was? Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that – that _school_ _–_ and came home with her pockets full of frog-spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was – a freak! But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"  
She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all the years.  
"Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had both of you, and of course you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as – as – _abnormal_ – and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"  
Ella's stomach had turned itself upside-down. Harry didn't look as if he was anything but happy. As soon as Harry found his voice he said, "Blown up? You told me they died in a car crash!"  
"CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner. "How could a car crash kill Lily and James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry Potter not knowing his own story when every kid in our world knows his name!"  
"But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.  
The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.  
"I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble getting hold of you, how much you didn't know. Ah, Harry, I don't know if I'm the right person to tell you – bout someone's got to – you can' go off to Hogwarts not knowing."  
He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.  
"Well it's best you know as much as I can tell you – mind, I can't tell you everything, it's a great mystery, parts of it…"  
He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds and then said, "It begins, I suppose with – with a person called – but it's incredible you don't know his name, everyone in our world knows –"  
"Who?"  
"Well – I don't like saying the name if I can help it. No one does."  
"Why not?"  
"Gulping gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went...bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was..."  
Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.  
"Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.  
"Nah – can't spell it. All right – _Voldemort._ " Hagrid shuddered. "Don't make me say it again. Anyway, this – this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started looking for followers. Got them too – some were afraid, some just wanted a bit of his power, because he was getting himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry and Ella. Didn't know who to trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches... Terrible things happened. He was taking over. Of course some stood up to him – and he killed them. Horribly. One of the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try taking the school, not just then anyway.  
Now, your mum and dad were as good a witch and wizard as I ever knew. Head Boy and Girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the mystery is why You-Know-Who never tried to get them on his side before...probably knew they were too close to Dumbledore to want anything to do with the Dark Side.  
"Maybe he thought he could persuade them...maybe he just wanted them out of the way. All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village you were living, on Halloween ten years ago. Yo was just a year old, Harry, and Ella just about two month. He came to your house and – and –"  
Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.  
"Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad – knew your mum and dad, and nicer people you couldn't find.  
You-Know-Who killed them. And then – and this is the real mystery of the thing – he tried to kill one of you, but it's unknown who first. Wanted to make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killing by then. But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you cot that mark on your forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what you get when a powerful, evil curse touches you – took care of your mum and dad and your house, even – but it didn't work on you, and that's why you are famous, Harry. No one ever lived after he decided to kill them, no one except you, and he killed some of the best witches and wizards of the age – the McKinnons, the Bones, the Prewetts – and you was only a baby, and you lived."  
Harry screwed up his face as if he had bitten into a lemon.  
Ella asked, "What's wrong?"  
"Nothing," he replied but it seemed that he lied.  
Hagrid was watching him sadly.  
"Took both of you from the ruined hose myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought you to this lot..."  
"Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped, he seemed to have almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fist were clenched.  
"Now you listen here, boy," he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured – and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdos, no denying it, and the world's better of without them in my opinion – asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types – just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end–"  
But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley – I'm warning you – one more word…"  
In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.  
"That's better, " Hagrid said, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.  
Ella, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.  
"But what happened to Vol – sorry – I mean, You-Know-Who?", Harry asked.  
"Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried to kill you. Makes you even more famous. That's the biggest mystery, see…he was getting more and more powerful – why'd he go?  
Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die. Some say he's still out there, hiding, but I don't believe it. People who was on his side came back to ours. Some of the came out of a trances. I don't know what they could have done if he came back.  
Most of us reckon he's still out there somewheere bot lost his powers. Too weak to carry on. Of course someting about you finisched him, Harry. There was something going on that night he hadn't counted on – _I_ don't know what it was, no one does – but something about you stumped him all right."  
"And what's about me? Am I as famous as Harry?"  
Hagrid smiled. "No, you aren't, Ella. Harry is known in the wizarding world as an only child. I think you have to prove yourself worthy."  
"Haven't I told you he's not going?" Uncle Vernon said. He seemed to have gotten his courage back. "He's going to Stonewall High and he'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and he needs all sorts of rubbish – spell books and wands and –"  
"If he wants to go, a great Muggle like you won't stop him," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily and James Potter's son going to Hogwarts! You're mad. His name has been down ever since he was born. He's off to the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and he won't know himself. He'll be with youngsters of his won sort, for a change, and he'll be under the greatest Headmaster Hogwarts ever had, Albus Dumbledor–"  
"I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.  
But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head. "NEVER –" he thundered, "– INSULT – ALBUS – DUMBLEDORE – IN – FRONT – OF – ME!"  
He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley – there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal and next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain. When he turned his back on them, Ella saw a curly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.  
Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.  
Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.  
"Shouldn't have lost my temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant to turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left to do."  
He cast a sideways look at Ella and Harry under his bushy eyebrows.  
"Be grateful if you didn't mention that to anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm – er – not supposed to do magic, strictly speaking. I was allowed to do a bit to follow you and get your letters to you and stuff – one of the reasons I was so keen to take on the job –"  
"Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Ella.  
"Oh, well – I was at Hogwarts myself but I – er – got expelled, to tell you the truth. In my third year. They snapped my wand in half and everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."  
"Why were you expelled?"  
"It's getting late and we've got lots to do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Got to get to the town, get all your books and that."  
He took of his thick black coat and threw it to Harry and Ella.  
"You can sleep under that." he said. "Don't mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple of mice in one of the pockets."

* * *

To Ice, who wrote a review, I know the storyline is close to the books and has no major changes from them, but it'll definitely change with the next chapters. Still, how could you know what _will_ come after the third chapter being written? And I'm still on it.


	5. Chapter Four

Ella woke up early the next morning. Although she could tell it was daylight, she kept her eyes shut. She could feel that Harry was awake too.  
"It was a dream," she heard him say. "I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard."  
There was suddenly a loud tapping noise.  
"And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door," Ella thought, her heart sinking. But she still didn't open her eyes. It had been such a good dream.  
Tap. Tap. Tap.  
Ella could barely hear Harry mumbling, "All right. I'm getting up."  
Harry sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him and on Ella. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.  
Harry scrambled to his feet. He seemed to be happy. He went to the window and opened it. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered on the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat. Ella, being surprised by the owl, shieked when it attacked the coat but then began laughing because it was tickling her when the owl picked onto the coat.  
"Don't do that.", Harry said at the same time as Ella said, gasping for air and laughing, "Stop - tickling - me".  
Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.  
"Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl–"  
"Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.  
"What?" Ella asked.  
"He want's paying for delivering the paper. Look in the pockets."  
Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing _but_ pockets – bunches or keys, slug pellets, balls of string, mint humbug, teabags…finally Harry pulled out a handful of strange coins.  
"Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.  
"Knuts?"  
"The little bronze ones."  
Harry counted out five little bronze coins and the owl held out its leg so he could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then it flew off through the open window.  
Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up and stretched.  
"Best be off, Harry, lots to today, got to get up to London and buy your stuff for school."  
Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them.  
"Um – Hagrid."  
"Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.  
"Ella and I haven't got any money – and you heard Uncle Vernon last night – he won't pay for me to go andd learn magic.  
"Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "Do you think your parents didn't leave you anything?"  
"But if their house was destroyed-"  
"They didn't keep their gold in the house, boy! Na, first stop for us is Gringotts. Wizards bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold – and I wouldn't say no to a bit of your birthday cake, neither."  
"Wizards have _banks_?", Ella asked.  
"Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."  
Ella nearly dropped her sausage. Harry wasn't so lucky as her. It landed in the dust.  
" _Goblins_?"  
"Yeah – so you would be mad to try and rob it, I'll tell you that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world for anything to keep anything save – except maybe Hogwarts. As a matter of facts, I got to visit Gringotts anyway. For Dumbledore." Hagrid drew himself up proudly. "He usually gets me to do important stuff for him. Fetching you – getting things from Gringotts – knows he can trust me, see. Got everything? Com on then."  
Ella rose, too, but when Hagrid saw it, he said, "Sorry, Ella, it's your turn next year."  
"Please?" Ella asked.  
Hagrid shook his head.  
Ella was sad. She was the first time separated from Harry for more than a few hours. She looked sadly after them.  
She didn't know what to do when Harry was in the school. Harry would be so far away from her and would have new stories to tell when he got back.

Hagrid and Harry had been gone for half an hour when the Dursleys came into the room.  
"I'm relieved that that scumbag is gone," Uncle Vernon said happily. "We can go home safely."  
Ella still looked at the ground. Harry had gone _with_ Hagrid and they didn't seem to care that he was gone.  
"Girl!" Uncle Vernon said, "You are going to row us over the sea to the mainland. No protest!"  
They went out to the place where the boat had been tied to the island. Except the boat wasn't there.  
"Maybe Hagrid and Harry used it," Ella thought.  
A fishing boat approached the island.  
"Do you need a lift?" the captain asked.  
"Yes. Our boat was washed away by that storm from yesterday," Uncle Vernon said.  
The captain mumbled something, but took them in.

An hour later they were sitting in the car and drove back home. The fisher had to drop them off a bit farther away from the car because it wasn't suitable to land there. Uncle Vernon was mad at him because of that and that he would be arriving later at home, but Ella failed to see the point. They would've been faster walking to the car if Dudley hadn't to complain every two minutes that he _had to walk_ to the car. It was idiotic to complain since Ella and Harry managed to let him run for more than _thrice_ that time when he was doing his favourite hobby, Harry and Ella hunting.  
 _Harr_ _y…_ The only person that cared for her and they were going not to see each other almost the whole day today and then several months in a while. It made her heart aching. She felt broken and incomplete.  
Ella had to fight herself not to burst into tears. She didn't know how she gonna survive a _day_ without him, much less several _months._ She wanted to be _with_ him, not _separated from_ him _._ She just wanted to shut herself into her room and never go out until Harry came back. Harry also was the only one that could understand her. If she was lucky she was allowed to visit him once of twice, but she couldn't count on that.

When they arrived at Privet Drive the same day, there still were no signs from Harry. She hoped that Hagrid had let him live.  
In the past day the Dursleys didn't talk with them and whenever something related to Harry appeared in the conversations, Dudley began to scream and ran out of the room if they weren't in the car. She still wanted Harry back but the day also had their good sides. Ella had more food to eat since they had to share what the Dursleys gave them.  
Ella managed to get out of the car without Uncle Vernon noticing.  
She went to Mrs. Figg. Even that Ella had been only there on Dudley's birthdays, Mrs Figg was like a grandmother to her. Ella could go to her and trust her with all the problems she had.  
She rang the bell. Seconds later, Mrs Figg opened the door, supported by crutches.  
"I appreciate that you visit me as long as you don't send me running around the whole time with my broken leg. Since I haven't seen the Dursleys in the past few days, I believe your visit has special circumstances, Ella," she said.  
"Yeah. Harry's going to go to a boarding school. Today he's going shopping with someone named Hagrid," Emma replied.  
"Ah, child, you don't know everything that's going on. First, I'm connected to Dumbledore and second, he told me that Harry would be back by this evening."  
"This evening? And you know about the wizarding world and Dumbledore?"  
"Yes on both questions. And Dumbledore told me that I have a closer look on you, Ella. But it wasn't normal for him."  
Ella was stunned. Mrs Figg knew about them being a wizard and a witch.  
"Why didn't you tell us we were a wizard and a witch, Mrs Figg?"  
"Dumbledore's Order, Ella, Dumbledore's Order. He didn't explain why though. But it's not normal for him to have an order without an explanation. And there's one thing, Emma. You and Harry can come over every time to sleep here."  
Mrs Figg had managed to surprise Ella another time. She didn't believe that  
"You're not serious," she said. But from reading the face of Mrs Figg, Ella knew that she was serious.  
"I don't know how the Dursleys react to that I'm a witch. Can I sleep here for this night?"  
"Of course. You might want to look out for your brother"  
"Thanks." Ella went away, happier than before

Harry didn't show up that evening. Ella walked around Little Whinging the next day. It hurt her that Harry wasn't here.  
But _what exactly_ was he doing? What did take him so long to get home? Ella couldn't answer the question. She was scared that something had happened to him.  
She wasn't looking forward to the next term - Her brother would be away for a very long time. Will he write her? Will she hold through the term where he was there until she was able to go by herself?

Ella was disappointed that Harry was arriving late in the evening the next day. She had seen a person with a trunk and a bird in a bird cage in the setting sun, but didn't recognise that person.  
But when he was closer she could identify certain features. They became more and more until...  
"Harry!" Ella said loud and with joy. She jumped at him and hugged him. He dropped his stuff. _Her big brother was finally in Privet Drive._  
They hugged each other for some time when Harry said, "I missed you, Ella."  
"Missed you too, Harry."  
"It's good to see that you survived the Dursleys, Ella," Harry said.  
"Yeah, although Dudley complained that he _had_ to walk. Apparently you survived your shopping trip with Hagrid."  
Harry nodded. "But there are things I have to tell you."  
"What are these?"  
"I tell you it in our cup-err, room."  
Ella felt her energy drop. Luckily they still were hugging each other and Harry could catch her.  
"I don't want to go to the Dursleys. I don't want to see their reaction that we are a witch and a wizard."  
"You know, they are our only family. We have to go to them."  
"No. We could sleep with Mrs Figg."  
"That's great. We don't have to be careful with the Dursleys."  
"I hope you will tell me what you want to tell me because otherwise I would kill you, Harry Potter"  
Harry laughed. "If you manage to overcome your love to me. You wouldn't survive _a week_ without my mental support, Ella."  
"Has anyone told you that you are a git sometimes?" Ella asked with a smile.  
"I don't know who you are talking to, Ella," Harry responded. The answer of said person was a slap in the face and a "Let's go to Mrs Figg."  
And they went to Mrs Figg.

In the month between Harry's birthday and the departure of Hogwarts Express, which was on September 1st and the day _after_ Ella's birthday, the Dursleys didn't speak to Ella and Harry. Dudley was so afraid of Harry that he was already in his room by the time anyone even _mentioned_ anything that was connected to Harry.  
One time Harry told Ella, "I'm not a doctor but Dudley _might_ suffer from the illness _Fear from the Wizarding World._ " Ella was laughing so hard on Harry's comment that tears were rolling down. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia - who were in the same room at that time - looked at them with detest.  
"Yes, you're right," she said when she calmed down _._  
Dudley was avoiding Ella after he caught wind of that joke and looked at her in fear when he saw her.

The day after Harry had returned from his shopping tour in Diagon Alley he used the time to explain everything about the wizarding world to Ella.  
"Please don't interrupt me, Ella," Harry said. Ella nodded. "The entrance into Diagon Alley is in a pub named _The Leakey Cauldron_. The pub is in a bad shape and in dire need of repair. When we entered the pub the Barkeeper adressed Hagrid and Hagrid said he was shopping with me. You probably still remember that I'm famous in the wizarding world from Hagrid, Ella. The Barkeeper recognised me and everyone that heard it mobbed me - the only lucky thing was that there weren't that many people hanging around this time."  
"I can imagine that is was annoying, Harry," Ella inrerrupted. Harry gave her an angry glare. "What did I tell about interrupting, Ella?" He said. "Sorry. Go on."  
"Yeah, it was annoying. But I had an advantage. They somehow didn't know I have red hair. You know we're poor in the muggle world, but in the wizarding world we're rich. Our parents have set up bank accounts for us in the wizarding bank, Gringotts. That was also our first stop. You can guess how happy I was when I found out that I wasn't dependant on the Dursleys."  
"I'm happy too about the same reason. But what do you mean with rich?"  
"Later. We went there to get some money and Hagrid had to retrieve something I apparently shouldn't know about. The goblin teller we went to wanted to accompany me to a meeting with their chief but Hagrid had pointed out that we would do it on a later day. We've bought everything that was on the list: school robes, a wand, a cauldron, portions ingredients and books. When we had finished, Hagrid wanted to accompany me to Kings Cross that I get my train that returns me to the Dursleys. But I managed to wriggle myself out of that by arguing I could find my way myself."  
"That I call _sneaky_ if you went to Diagon Alley after that, Harry Potter."  
"I actually did that, Ella. I rented a room for one night in the _Leakey Cauldron_. The next day I went to Diagon Alley to buy more books because Hagrid had dragged me out of the store the day before and to go to Gringotts. The goblins told me interesting things about our family I want to share. Someone wanted to keep me in the dark about my inheritance."  
"The only thing is to get the matter with the goblins public. Why would Hagrid refuse you to let attend a meeting with the goblins?"  
"I have a plan."  
He then told Ella his plan. In fact, Harry had already managed to set some parts of the plan in motion. He had written several letters on the train ride home. The letters were addressed to the Queen of Great Britain (Harry had figured out that she was the only Muggle or non-magical person excepted along with the Country leaders from the International Statue of Secrecy, which stated that only siblings and parents of Muggleborns - a magical person born to two Muggles - and Halfbloods - magical person with two muggle grandparents - were allowed to know), one to the American Minister of Magic and each one to both Heads of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement in Great Britain and US. He sent the letters away with Hedwig that morning.  
Harry revealed in that letter that he was prevented to get a conversation with the goblins by Hagrid and asked the British Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement who his guardian was and who managed his Lord seat.  
They've got replies to all letters within two weeks. The American Minister and Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement had written a letter together and said they were not pleased that someone so high and famous in Great Britain would be denied to learn about his inheritance and parents and that they would talk to the British ministry. The British Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, an Amelia Bones, had written a similar letter, inviting him to Bones Manor in two days.  
Gringotts sent a letter to Harry to confirm a follow-up meeting in the Christmas Holidays.  
During the time he waited for the answers, Harry read several books he had bought the second day he was in Diagon Alley. He found it quite fascinating what you could do in the wizarding world. He hoped that Ella wouldn't get jealous of him  
Harry had another talk with Ella, saying that being married to multiple women and betrothal contracts were still allowed in the wizarding world, but marriages to one woman were more common right now.


	6. Chapter Five

When he waited for Madam Bones to arrive, Harry went through his head what he wanted to talk with her and if he had everything with him. He also wanted to have an investigation to why Hagrid wanted to forbid him to talk with the goblin and to know more about his parents.  
A woman came around the corner and was walking towards him. She asked, "Harry Potter?"  
Harry nodded.  
"Amelia Bones," she said. "Is that what you normally wear?"  
"Except my school uniform, yes. They're hand-me-downs from my cousin."  
Madam Bones gasped. "Then a talk is definitely appropriate. They rather fit a small walrus than you. Come with me."  
Madam Bones walked some distance and Harry walked besides her. She then suddenly stopped. "Grab my arm," she said. Harry found it odd but complied. He suddenly felt a whirl and nearly threw up when he was standing on his two feet.  
"I _definitely_ should have given Ella more of my food," He said.

Several minutes later Harry and Madam Bones were sitting comfortable in the living room.  
"It's good to see that you're doing good, Harry. You said in the letter that you wanted to talk about several things," Madam Bones said. Harry nodded and pulled out a roll of parchment.  
"This is the will of my parents. I have found something rather interesting in the guardian's section" He laid it on the table.  
"May I read it?" Madam Bones asked. Harry nodded.  
She read through it and suddenly paled. "Where did you get that copy of the will?" she asked.  
"From the goblins," Harry responded and Madam Bones gasped while getting even paler.  
"Then we have a serious miscarriage of justice. Sirius Black couldn't betray your parents but that's one of the crimes he's sitting in jail in the same time." She sighted.  
"Thanks for showing me that, Harry. I will get him a trial as soon as possible," Madam Bones said. "I have still several questions for you open. Can I keep this copy of the will?"  
Harry said, "Yes you can, Madam Bones."  
"You can call me Amelia, Harry. Another question. Where are you living?"  
"I'm living with the Dursleys." He somehow knew he should tell her that.  
"The will explicitly states that you and your sister shouldn't have gotten under the care of the two of them. Also I nearly held you for an eight-year-old if I didn't know how you looked. Can I get the two things in front of the Wizengamont?"  
"Wizengamont?" Harry asked. Amelia looked displeased. "Who did introduce you to the wizarding world?"  
"Hagrid," Harry said. Amelia's face darkened. "It shouldn't have been him. It should have been a professor. Guess I have another thing to bring in front of the Wizengamont." She sighted.  
"The Wizengamont is the law making and judicial part of the Ministry of Magic. Do you know at least what that is?"  
Harry nodded. "Okay, only two questions are left. Do you know where your sister Ella is?"  
"Yes. She's living with me," Harry responded.  
"Okay. The last thing for today is the betrothal contract. What do you know about those contracts?"  
He said, "I just flew over the important stuff."  
"Have you heard of the Line Continuation Option?" Harry nodded.  
"Susan isn't my only betrothed. Luna Lovegood and Daphne Greengrass are too. From what I know Daphne has a little sister."  
Amelia nodded. "That's also what I know about her. You could give her the Lady Potter title."  
Harry sighted. "There's one small problem. I also have the Lord Peverell and Lord Gryffindor titles."  
Amelia gasped. "That's a lot of power. And both lines are believed to be extinct."  
"The Gryffindor line merged into the Peverell line and the Peverell merged into the Potter line, which is also a side line of the Peverell line."  
"Do you know how much money and power in the Wizengamont you hold, Harry?"  
"From what I know, one third of the Wizengamont without allies and several hundreds of millions galleons. I can literally stop any vote I dislike. And from what the goblins say is that I could live with my three betrothed and three wives for the Lady titles and five children each wife and the interest only isn't used by the half."  
"That's a lot of money," Amelia exclaimed. "That's a lot," Harry agreed.  
"I'm going to tell Susan about the active betrothal contract. You and your sister are invited to Bones Manor, but I except to see you at the Wizengamont meeting."  
"How do you know I'm emancipated?"  
"The contract wouldn't become active if you weren't of age or emancipated and you could take your Lord titles along with your duties in the Wizengamont when you are either. Have you any intentions for the contract for the future?"  
"Except marry Susan depending if she's the right type for me, no. Can you take me back then?"  
"One last question. When do you want to reveal your sister's identity?"  
"When she comes to Hogwarts. I'm more comfortable that I could protect her then."  
"I understand," Amelia said. "Susan has one friend her age, Hannah Abott, and they're visiting each other very often. Susan has invited Hannah over tomorrow."  
"I'll see if I visit you tomorrow. I'll owl you." Amelia nodded.

Amelia Bones had accompanied him to his home in Privet Drive, where they said goodbye. "Tell your sister that I have invited both of you to the Manor. And don't forget to write the letter," Madam Bones reminded him.  
When he came into his and Ella's room, he still thought about the invitation of Madam Bones.  
"What's wrong, Harry?" Ella asked. She always knew when something was troubling him.  
"Amelia has invited to visit her at her home," he said.  
"Amelia?" Ella asked. Apparently Harry had neglected to tell her that Madam Bones first name was Amelia.  
"Madam Amelia Bones is the head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. I had several things to discuss with her today," Harry said.  
"The Godfather Ritual hinders a person to either hurt the godchild or the family or deliberately betray them to someone he knows would hurt them. The penalty would be instant death. But Sirius Black, a friend of our parents and our godfather through the ritual, serves a sentence in the wizarding prison for betraying the Potters amongst others."  
"That doesn't make sense. If he betrayed us, then why could he sit in the wizarding prison?"  
"That's what's Amelia is investigating. She also noticed that we were abused and will bring it in front of the Wizengamont." Harry said.  
"Wizengamont?"  
"The law making and judicial part of the Ministry of Magic. It's her explanation. But do you know what it means?"  
"That we might not see the Dursleys again?" Ella asked. Harry nodded.  
"One thing. I have to write her if we are going to visit her tomorrow. They have a pool. She has allowed us to swim there when we visit. Do you want to come?" Ella nodded.  
"Then we have to buy swimsuits for both of us. Luckily I have muggle money."

Harry and Ella went to an shop and were looking through the swimsuits. Harry soon found a fitting swimming trunk. Ella had more problems. When she saw that her brother had finished finding one swimsuit, she called him over.  
"What's wrong?"  
"I can't decide which swimsuit I should use."  
"Take the green one."  
Ella took the others back to where she got them from while Harry took the swimsuits to the checkout and paid them.

In the afternoon of the next day, Amelia again visited Privet Drive. Harry was standing again in front of the house waiting for her, this time with his sister.  
"Good to see you again, Harry. And you must be his sister, Ella," she said to the girl next to him. Said person nodded. "So let's go," Amelia said.  
"I'm happy that we're away from the Dursleys again," Harry said.  
"Me too, Harry," Ella responded. The three of them were walking in silence to where Amelia could apparate them.  
"One question, Harry. Why did you want me not to eat too much today?" Ella suddenly asked.  
"Because I almost threw up yesterday," Harry explained.  
When they reached a specific crossing, Amelia said, "Grab my arm."  
Ella then grabbed Harry's arm while Harry grabbed Madam Bones' arm and they apparated.  
"I think I know what you would have felt yesterday, Harry," Ella said. She was feeling a bit nauseous.  
"Yeah, but it actually was amplified with the fact I ate more." Harry didn't look much better than her.  
"It's actually a good idea not to apparate too soon after you ate. Most beginners throw up when they do that but later on you could control it," Amelia injected. "Do you have swimsuits?"  
"Yes, we have. We've bought them shortly after you brought me back to Privet Drive," Harry said.  
"There are two things. First, Susan knows about the contracts. Second, one of Susan's best friends, Hannah Abbot, is here and they are in the pool. Both only know that two mistreated children will come but they don't know that either of you are here, but they will stay in the pool for another while."  
"Lucy that you told Madam Bones about the contracts. Only something like this could happen to you, Harry."  
"You could call me Amelia, Ella. And apparently your brother had you up to date for the time he was in the wizarding world, which wasn't much," Amelia said. She smiled when she saw Harry's blush and said, "Don't make me force to add too much to the next Wizengamont meeting. Both of you. Susan probably told Hannah that both of you wouldn't react too good to physical contact. Any other questions?" Both shook their heads. "You could use one of the bathrooms as a changing room," Amelia said. Harry and Ella nodded.  
"Where is one?" Harry asked.  
"If you go down the corridor, the first door on the right," Amelia responded.  
The eyes of the Potters met. They had seen each other naked often enough to not been embarrassed about it and the closeness caused by the abused definitely helped. And both vanished into the same bathroom simultaneously.

They went from the bathroom to the pool after asking Amelia for directions. Ella instantly recognised two figures lying in chairs under an umbrella that protected them from the sun. One of them had fair hair and a rather pink skin color. The other had red hair and a white skin color. _So this must be Susan Bones and Hannah Abbott. I'd guess Susan is the one with red hair,_ Ella thought.  
The person with fair hair must have realized they had visitors because she nudged the other person. Both jumped to the feet and ran to them. Suddenly the girl with fair hair slowed down with a deep red face and said a for Harry and Ella barely audible "Oh!".  
 _So the red haired girl is Susan Bones and the fair haired girl is Hannah Abbott,_ Harry thought. Ella was thinking something similar.  
"Sue, the boy with red hair looks like Harry Potter," Hannah said. Susan's eyes grew large and her face colored in a color that matched her face shortly after she turned to Harry. "Oh shit," Susan said.  
"What's wrong, Sue?" asked Hannah.  
"I'm betrothed to him with two other girls. And he had seen both of us in our swimsuit." Hannah gasped when Susan said _betrothed_ but didn't know how to respond to the second sentence.  
"Are you sure, you are betrothed to him and not something else?" Hannah asked after a short pause.  
"I thought that too but how could you be sure when Auntie talks about things that are only logical in that context?" Susan retorted.  
Both were only feet away from the Potters. Unbeknownst to each other, both were afraid Harry might reject them and walked slowly towards them.  
Amelia, who apparently went to the pool shortly after the Potters, must have realised that because she said, "Susan, Hannah, I don't think he would do anything harmful to you."  
"How do you know that, Auntie?"  
"Harry had shown in a conversation yesterday signs of abuse."  
"You're kidding, Auntie," Susan said but Amelia shook her head. "And Harry Potter has no sister."  
"I wish I was kidding about _that_ , but she looks similar enough to James and Lily Potter to actually _be_ their daughter."

Over the next few hours the four of them came closer. Susan and Hannah didn't blush anymore when Harry for some reason touched or talked to. Harry. Harry and Ella were also getting more comfortable touching or talking to Susan and Hannah. They had several water fights; races, which Harry won despite his small size and Ella often finished with almost no time before Susan and Hannah did - The days of Dudley chasing them came here to an advantage-; and sun bathing.  
When Amelia came out to get the children in for dinner, she saw the four of them sunbathing with Susan snuggling into Harry and Harry had an arm around her waist, while Ella held Harry's other arm with both of her arms. Amelia couldn't suppress a smile. Harry and Ella did make big advancements despite their upbringing.  
Hannah, who was considerably closer to Amelia than the others, noticed her approaching first first and jumped up, "What's wrong, Amelia?"  
"Dinner's ready. Harry and Ella can eat with us too," was the reply.  
Hannah bolted to the three, nudged them and told the news. "But Harry's too comfortable," was Susan's reply  
"You still have to eat, even more after what we did today. By the way, you're invited, Harry and Ella" Hannah said.  
"We wou-" Harry began, but Susan broke in. "Auntie surely made enough food for you. And before you change your mind, I didn't have any other company than Auntie and Hannah for dinner. I welcome the change."  
"She did?" Ella said. She and Harry looked aghast. "Yeah. I don't know what would shake the wizarding harder, that the hero is being mistreated or has a little sister," Susan said.  
"Probably the mistreatment part," Hannah said. Susan had to agree with that and said, "Come with us."  
Susan and Hannah went to the house, Harry and Ella followed reluctantly. They didn't know what to think. No one had shown that much interest in them than Hannah and Susan the whole afternoon, much less inviting to swim with their niece and her friend for the afternoon with dinner after that or even cook for them.

Throughout the whole dinner the four of them had a very good time. They had begun to tell some of the most embarrassing stories to each other, trying to top the other two and continued during the dinner. Amelia scowled for not changing and continuing to tell the stories, but to no afford.  
When Harry and Ella had to separate from the two, the four of them made a fuss, but knew that even if they didn't see each other till September first, they still could meet each other in the Hogwarts Express. Amelia brought them back.  
Harry and Ella met Susan several times after that afternoon. Hannah was sometimes with Susan.

On Ella's tenth birthday, Harry gave her several presents. He said about them, "You'll like them. And they're there to distract you from missing me too much." Ella's response was, when she realised how many presents had brought with him and put in front of her, "That's way too much for me. You're spoiling me, your own sister, Harry Potter! It will become you bad because I will turn into Dudley."  
"Why?" Harry asked innocent, failing to suppress a smile and earning a playful slap on the shoulder from Ella.  
Several presents were books. They were a copy of of _Hogwarts: A History,_ _Portions from 1981 to 1991 - All major breakthroughs_ , _Portions for Beginners_ (with real ingredients. Harry had found out that it didn't violate the Statue of Secrecy and he hoped that they were good enough because of them doing the main part of the cooking), _Spells_ _for Beginners_ , _Useful Household Spells_ ("Could come in handy," Harry commented on that book. Ella only smiled), _Curses, Jinxes and other offensive and defensive Spells for Beginners_ and a book on the newer wizarding history - _The Rise and Fall of You-Know-Who_. As Ella wasn't allowed to do magic and Harry knew that she wanted to learn at least the theory of the spells, Harry brought her another surprise: A stick of wood shaped like a regular wand.  
Ella was feeling that she was rather lucky. Harry was going there nearly unprepared, he had to find out by himself, but he probably tell her what he saw there. And Ella had the books, from which she could learn.  
When Ella and Harry finally went to bed, Harry had asked Uncle Vernon to drop him at Kings Cross. Apparently there started the Hogwarts Express. Uncle Vernon had agreed since he had to bring Dudley to the hospital to remove the pig tail that Hagrid had caused.  
Harry gave one Piece of paper and a letter to Ella. "On the piece of Paper is the location of _The Leaky Cauldron_ , the Entrance of Diagon Alley. It's a hidden shopping mall. If you somehow need money, show the Letter to a goblin in Gringotts, which is a large white building. The barkeeper of _The Leaky Cauldron_ can help you if you need it."  
Throughout the day two owls came. Both were carrying presents. Ella didn't want to reveal the content to her brother

On the next day Ella was very sad since she was separated longer than a few hours except the time for his shopping tour.  
"Keep out of trouble for me, Harry," Ella said, close to tears.  
"I will, Ella," was his response.  
Ella hugged Harry.  
"I'll write as often as I can, Ella. But remember, Hedwig has her limits."  
"Yeah, I will, Harry."  
Ella let Harry go.  
"One last question. Can I take your diary to Hogwarts, Ella?"  
"Yes." Ella was avoiding Harry's eyes because she didn't know if she could hold it longer.  
"For your information, Ella, I made a subscription of the wizarding paper, the _Daily Prophet,_ if you want to know what's going on in the wizarding world," Harry said. Ella could only nod


	7. Chapter Six

It was the day after Halloween. Hedwig still was in Ella's room waiting for her to give a letter for Harry. Ella had given Hedwig some of the owl treat that Harry had left for her.  
"Hedwig, I know you want to get a letter from me for Harry, but you have wait until the evening. We'll see us at the Creevy's house," Ella said to the owl.  
Ella looked after Hedwig as she flew off and made herself ready for the day. She was going to move to the Creevies, no matter what the Dursleys said.

Ella was waiting with Colin and his brother Dennis for Colin's parents.  
"They are so happy that I finally have made friends with someone. Things like a teacher suddenly getting green hair are always happening around me and Dennis. Everyone thinks we're a freak except my parents," Colin said.  
"Colin, you cannot explain these things right now, but they are normal," Ella responded.  
"Thanks for reassuring me, Ella," Colin said. He didn't seem to be more happy about it.  
"I can ask my brother-"  
"That was your brother?" Colin said surprised.  
"Didn't you think he wasn't, having the same surname as me?"  
It seemed to have occurred to Colin that Harry really was Ella's brother. "How am I so dumb to notice _that_? It was so obvious that you were brother and sister," he said.  
"At least I can ask him if he can ask if you are a wizard," Ella said. "All children wizards have to be written to and they have to have the names and addresses."  
Colin's parents arrived.  
"Mum! Dad!" both said and hugging both of them.  
"And you must be Ella," Mrs Creevy said turning to Ella.

Two minutes later they were sitting in the car heading for the Creevies home. Mr Creevy was sitting while Mrs Creevy was talking to the children.  
"Something mysterious happened today morning. A snow owl arrived at our home and is still sitting there."  
Ella realized which owl it was. It was Hedwig.  
"It's my brother's owl. We're sending our letters like this."  
"You said you're a witch and strange things happened around you, if I'm right. Can you ask your brother if Colin or Dennis are wizards."  
"She already suggested that," Dennis said. It was the first sentence he had said today.  
"If that fails we have to wait until the acceptance letters arrive. And I have to suggest not to burn them."  
"Why?" Colin asked.  
"They come til you read one of them."  
Everyone went silent.  
"How do you know it?" Colin asked  
"They tried to prevent Harry to read them."  
"And they came in sacks," Colin concluded.  
"You could express it like that. The letter comes at the end of July."  
"That's long," Dennis howled. "I want to know it now."

Half an hour later they arrived at the house.  
Hedwig instantly flew onto Ella's shoulder.  
"Sorry, Hedwig that you had to wait for me so long," Ella said and gave Hedwig the owl treat.  
"Can you write the letter now?" Colin asked.

A few minutes later Ella had written the letter to Harry. It read:  
 _Hello Harry,_ _  
_ _I hope you haven't made eternal enemy with Hermione Granger and are on a more friendly basis with Ron._ _  
_ _I have something to do for you. I've made friends with Colin Creevy. He wants to know if he's a wizard. Could you ask for the information?_ _  
_ _Love, Ella_

In the evening three days past Halloween, Dennis screamed, "Hedwig is coming back."  
Ella looked out of the window. Dennis was right. Hedwig was coming back with a letter.  
It was from Harry. She read:  
 _Hello Ella,_  
 _I've read your last letter._ _When Hedwig came in the morning, Malfoy_ _–_ _the Slytherin I met in Diagon Alley_ _–_ _said that my girlfriend had written again._ _Apparently there is a rumor that I have a girlfriend, but you know who the girlfriend is. You. Hermione had snatched –_ Ella noticed that he just had written Hermione and not Hermione Granger. That was not her Harry – _your last letter as I read it and just managed to read the last line of it. Apparently this made her believe I have a girlfriend_ _, but they didn't annoy me until yet_ _._  
 _I've managed to become friends with Hermione. -_ "Interesting," Ella thought – _Ron and I had defeated a troll that had been let in by someone on Halloween and saved Hermione._ _She was happy about it._  
 _To your request, I have asked Professor McGonagall and showed her your letter._ _She was happy about seeing the letter but said she couldn't give me any information.  
_ _I'm missing you, Ella._ _We can go home in the Christmas break or stay at Hogwarts. Should I come home?_ _  
_ _I've a question. Do you already know the answer to it? Tip: I've seen a calendar_ _and the end of the term is the last Saturday_ _in July_ _._  
 _Love, Harry._  
Ella was happy that Harry had managed to break the rivalry with Hermione, but also disappointed that Harry didn't manage to get the information.  
"He failed to get the information," Ella said.  
"Oh," Colin and Dennis said in unison.  
She went all questions through in her head which one Harry might have meant. Then it occurred to her. Harry had counted the days on the calendar.  
"Do you have a calendar here?" Ella asked.  
"Yes, why?" Mr Creevy answered.  
"Harry asked something and I have to use a calendar."

After breakfast the next morning Ella wrote a return letter for Harry. It read:  
 _Dear Harry,_  
 _I'm happy for you that you made friends with Hermione Granger._ _I think you have brought a habit with you to tell a girl everything you learned. (I don't know why and who the girl is…) Maybe you could do the same there for this year._  
 _For your question you didn't ask, the answer is 300 days if I guessed it right._ _  
_ _And for the Christmas break, please stay away from home. You know we never had_ _a good C_ _h_ _ristmas and never got any presents._ _They had always managed to get both of us cooking lots of food._ _  
_ _I hope that the rumor has vanished when I arrive._  
 _Good Bye, Ella_ _._  
She went to Hedwig and said, "Hedwig, please deliver that to Harry."

* * *

Another Chapter is up. It will take some time til I have finished this story.

Are you gone crazy? Over 300 views? Wow, I didn't know you are going so crazy on this story.


	8. Chapter Seven

The next days Ella was walking around the neighborhood with Colin. Ella had realized that she needed someone that was protective over her and Colin was somehow that. In the fist months since Dudley wasn't on their school Colin got really attached to Ella. Not that they liked each other, but they realized that they had much in common, such as strange occurrences happening around them and a fascination for cooking. Ella found out that Colin's fascination for cooking came mainly from Colin's Mom. She feared that Colin and his brother Dennis didn't find a woman that could cook.  
Ella had her own fears. She was afraid of that one of the Dursleys actually find her with the Creevies. It was also the reason why she was in the house the major part of the day. And she was afraid of that she didn't get her Hogwarts acceptance letter. _Hogwarts_ _…_ that made her miss Harry. He was so protective over her and was constantly worrying about her well-being.  
"Are you okay, Ella? You seem to be absent," Colin said. He and Ella were sitting on a bench in a park in close proximity to the Creevies.  
"I've been thinking about Harry. He's protecting me and he's gone now. Also I don't know if the Dursleys do care if I vanish."  
"They would care, Ella."  
"I don't think so. I mean… they've mistreating Harry and me for the time we've been living there, so they could be happy if we're gone."  
"Have you written Harry that you're with me, Ella?" Colin said.  
"No, but I still can write him later."  
"Write him. You might forget it later," Colin said  
"You're right, Colin. I might forget to tell him later," Ella responded.  
Colin stood up.  
"You wanted to see the park," he said.  
That was true. Ella wanted to see the park. She stood up and grabbed Colin's hand. They walked through the park.

The park was nice. It had a pond in the middle of it and on about one third of the shore bushes had been planted.  
Colin and Ella decided to crawl in the bushes. Even when they crawled on the ground the bushes were so dense that you had lost them if you stopped to catch your breath.  
When they managed to get out of the bushes and find each other, they removed all the dirt they got from crawling in the bushes.  
"Mum and Dad shouldn't know we crawled there," Colin said.  
"Yes," Ella responded. "But I hadn't that much fun since Harry was gone."  
Ella felt sad as soon as she said it.  
"What's wrong, Ella?" Colin asked. He must have realized that Ella wasn't feeling well.  
"It's thinking about Harry. I've never been separated from Harry than a day except when he bought his stuff for Hogwarts. Before you ask where it is, I only know it's in London."  
"I hate it that he didn't manage to get the information if I was a wizard or not," Colin said after they walked a few minutes in complete silence.  
"You're not alone, Colin. I'm feeling the same about it," Ella said. "We're so close that I'll trust you with my life."  
"Same on my side, Ella."  
Ella turned her head to look at Colin. Both smiled at each other.

The next days were also very good. Ella and Colin managed to make another friend. Ella was happy about it since it was a girl.  
The girl's name was Chloe Smith. She had brown skin, blue eyes and fair hair and she had moved here on the day after Ella and Colin visited the park. Ella had approached her two days after she moved here. Chloe first rejected Ella, but Ella managed to gain Chloe's trust. Ella introduced Chloe and Colin shortly after that.  
Chloe was surprised that her only friends, Ella and Colin, didn't dump her when she couldn't explain that the book was floating when Ella and Colin entered the classroom. They told Chloe that Ella was a witch since she had a wizard brother and Colin also most likely was a wizard and Chloe also most likely was a witch.  
"You're the first ones to not dump me after they realized who I was, Ella and Colin. Anyway, what do you know about the wizarding world, Ella?" she said after Ella and Colin revealed who they were. It took Chloe some time to take the shock in that she was a witch.

Why don't you bring us to your parents, Ella?" Chloe said.  
Two weeks had passed since the book had been floating and Chloe was comfortable hanging around with Ella and Colin.  
"My parents died when I was two months old," Ella said.  
"Sorry for bringing the topic up," Chloe apologized.  
"I haven't known them very well when they were murdered by You-Know-Who. Harry is a celebrity because he stopped You-Know-Who."  
Ella had told them everything about the wizarding world.  
"How did he stop the You-Know-Who?" Chloe asked.  
"He didn't tell me."  
Suddenly a snow owl appeared on Ella's shoulder with a letter in its beak.  
Chloe looked at the owl curiously.  
"Why did the owl land on your shoulder?" Chloe asked.  
"It's Harry's owl. He must have sent me another letter."  
Ella turned around and took the letter.  
"I'll read the letter in my room," she said.

Later that day Ella opened the letter. It read:  
 _Dear Ella,_  
 _I haven't told you, but I've been chosen to be_ _S_ _eeker of the Gryffindor Quidditch Team. If you don't know what he does, he is looking for the Snitch, a small golden ball with wings_ _._ _The other players are three Chasers, who chase after the Quaffle that is similar to a Muggle ball, a Keeper that guards three rings the Chasers have to hit, two Beaters who keep the Bludgers away. The Bludgers are two balls that keep flying trying to hit the players. Every hit in one of the rings gives ten points and he team whose Seeker gets the Snitch gets an additional 150 points and the game ends, so the winner are normally them._ _  
_ _All I've heard is that the seeker has to be fast and nimble._  
 _We had yesterday our first game against Slytherin. First Years aren't allowed to have brooms but they bent the rules after Professor McGonagall had seen me flying. I should have been thrown out of the school for that. They've bought me a Nimbus 2000 to join the team. We've won the game after I swallowed the Snitch. A teacher had tried to hex my broom while playing, but Hermione came to my rescue. She said that it was Professor Snape who was hexing my broom, but Hagrid – you might remember him – had denied that he had hexed it._

 _I hope the Dursleys are treating you well._  
 _Love, Harry._  
 _PS. Dad and Mum's been on the Quidditch team, too. Hermione found out the other day_  
"I have to write him back," Ella said.

* * *

Guess what? I'm back. Sorry for not updating so long but I was a bit lazy.

I have one thing to tell you. What did you plan with the story? Getting it to one thousand views? You're halfway through it with the current number of views - 499. (2017-08-17, 08:10 UTC)


	9. Chapter Eight

The next day, Ella wrote Harry back. The letter read:  
 _Dear Harry,  
I'm sorry that I haven't told you that earlier, but on the day after Halloween I went to Colin Creevy after becoming friends with him. We get along and another girl is now in our group. Her name is Chloe Smith. First she didn't trust me but we're close now. She was surprised that we didn't dump her after a book was floating through the classroom. We've explained her everything you told me.  
Also congratulations for catching – or should I say swallowing? - the snitch and getting on the Quidditch team. You did great explaining Quidditch and Colin and Chloe were happy that they got something explained._  
 _I certainly hope that I don't have to write a friend of yours to keep you safe. I haven't heard that you actually can hex a broom  
_ _I would be happy to get on the Quidditch team. You're making me a bit jealous._ _  
Bye, Ella._  
While Ella wrote it, Colin and Chloe were sitting in the same room.  
"I hope that your brother is fine," Colin said.  
"I'm hoping that too," Ella responded.  
"I've talked with my parents yesterday evening and they are not so happy with me having you as friends. They say you're a bad influence on me," Chloe said.  
"Why?" Ella and Colin said in unison.  
"My mother is a typical housewife and both have the opinion that a woman should work at home, raising the kids and having no fun. They have said that I'm sent to a Victorian all-girls school in Scotland," Chloe said. "I can write the name of the school down."  
"My parents could ask for information at the school," Colin suggested.

They've met again on the next afternoon. Chloe was a bit depressed through the whole day.  
"What's depressing you, Chloe?" Ella asked.  
"My parents threatened me to give house arrest if I stayed too long out," Chloe responded.  
Ella took in a comforting hug. Colin looked at Ella expectantly.  
"Believe me, I've lived through worse, Chloe."  
"You just don't know how it feels, Ella."  
"I've been living in a cupboard with my brother that was only big enough for one of us. Every time one of us made something wrong in the eyes of my aunt and uncle, both of us were locked in there. Also they don't want us to meet with other wizards and witches."  
"What?" Chloe said in disbelief. She had heard that Harry and Ella were bullied before she met Ella but she hadn't heard that.  
"It's true," Ella said and Colin nodded confirming it.  
"I didn't really believe it myself but I knew that they were children with problems. So the explanation fitted that both of them didn't show up at school. But I fail to understand why they hate the wizarding world so much," Colin said.  
"I don't understand it either, Colin," Ella said.  
Mrs Creevy came into the room.  
"Can I talk to you?" she asked.  
"Of course," all three said in unison.  
"Colin, you have asked to get some information. One of my friends had to go through it and it's a school that teaches children to be housewives."  
Chloe was shocked. "No way I'm going there. I rather go to your brothers school than there, Ella. Even if I have no magical ability," she said.  
"That doesn't sound like a school that I'm going to either Chloe. Anyway, it's your decision to which school you want to go."  
Chloe's eyes widened. "My sister."  
"Who?"  
Mrs Creevy, Ella and Colin didn't know who's Chloe's sister was.  
"My younger sister. She's barely six. Her birthday is on the first of December. Maybe we can hide her here or with my older brother who's already working. The risk with my brother is that she could be found."  
"That could be. Did you tell your parents our address?" Colin asked.  
"Your … No. Why do you ask, Colin?"  
"You and your sister are safer if your parents don't know where you are, Chloe," Mrs Creevy said.  
"I just remembered it. I've told my parents your telephone number. They could look it up and arrive here."  
"Chloe," Mrs Creevy said, "the first time they arrive here we can't do anything but threaten with police. But if they don't stop to come here, we can actually call the police."  
Chloe's face revealed that she was more confident but that there was still some discomfort.  
"Thanks, Mrs Creevy," she replied. Suddenly she jumped up.  
"What's wrong, Chloe?" Ella and Colin said in unison.  
In Ella's room was a clock. Chloe pointed at it, trembling. "I have to be at home by four o'clock," she said barely loud enough. Ella looked at the clock. It was five past four.  
"Oh!" Ella said. "Get home as fast as possible."  
"Wish me good luck, Colin and Ella."  
"Good luck," both said in unison. And Chloe ran off.  
"What's wrong with being to late?" Mrs Creevy asked. Ella and Colin looked at each other.  
"Her parents don't want her to meet with us," Ella answered. "And her parents have threatened to give house arrest."

At half past seven, the door bell rang. Ella and the Creevies looked at each other in surprise. The five of them just had finished diner and the two older Creevies didn't invite anyone to the diner. "Who could ring at this time?" Mr Creevy asked Mrs Creevy.  
Mr Creevy went to the door. When he opened it, it revealed a man with a girl. The man could be in his mid-twenties and the girl most likely was six. Both had brown hair and brown skin. While the man had brown eyes the girl had blue eyes.  
"Mr Creevy, am I right?" the man asked. Mr Creevy just managed to nod. "Oscar Smith, the older brother of Chloe. She told me to hide Olivia here."  
Ella and Colin leaped onto their feet. "She told us about you," both said in unison.  
"What happened to Chloe?" Ella asked.  
"Apparently you are concerned. Ella, am I right?" Oscar said.  
Ella was so surprised that she barely managed to get a "Yes" out of her. Chloe apparently had told her brother everything.  
"Chloe has to stay in her room while she is in the house except if she is using the loo or for meals. My parents have threatened to take her out of the school and my mother is bringing her every day to school and pick her up from there."  
"That's not how you raise a child," Mr Creevy said shocked.  
"I totally agree with you, Mr Creevy," Oscar said. "I've threatened to call the youth welfare office if they kept it so strict. If I think about the situation now, the best option would have been to call them instantly and without warning. I have a question. Do you accept to take her in?"  
Mr Creevy turned around and looked at his wife. She nodded.  
It seemed that someone had taken the weight of the sky off the shoulders of Oscar. "Thanks," he said with a big smile.

* * *

Did someone notice that I accidentally changed Oscars name into Oliver in this chapter? I did and promt corrected it.


	10. Chapter Nine

Today was the first of December and also Olivia's fifth birthday. Olivia was still sleeping. Ella and the Creevies wanted to surprise Olivia and had already set up a cake and some presents. Her older brother Oscar had said that Olivia loved to read, but didn't say anything else. They would have been happier if he had told something but it explained itself when Olivia was in Colin's room. Colin had some problems with getting her away from his bookshelf. Some time later, on the thirtieth of November, when Ella came into the bedroom she shared with Olivia, she saw a book in Olivia's hands.  
"What do you read, Olivia?" Ella asked.  
Olivia saw Ella and jumped up. " _Hogwarts: A History._ I want to go to Hogwarts. There are wizards and they fly on brooms and play Quidditch," she said while running around. Seconds later Olivia stopped and looked at Ella. "What's Quidditch? It doesn't explain it here."  
"Olivia, calm down. It is good that you want to know it, but I'm not sure if you could see it. You have to be a witch and we won't be for certain til you're eleven, but from what your siblings said it is possible. The reason why I'm here is that you have to go to bed."  
Olivia's face darkened  
"I'm not tired. And you have to explain what Quidditch is, Ella."  
"You are tired. And I'll tell you about Quidditch when you're in bed."  
Olivia suddenly ran into the bath. Colin, who had seen that, looked at Ella surprised.  
"What did you do?" he asked.  
"Olivia had found _Hogwarts: A History_ and wanted to know what Quidditch is. I've told her that I tell her when she's in bed."  
Colin had read _Hogwarts: A history._ " _That_ book?" he asked a little more surprised. "It seems that she's a know-it-all in the future for me."  
Of course her birthday was on the next day and all bookstores were closed today.

Olivia had woken up and Ella dressed her.  
"Can you tell me more of the wizarding world, Ella?" Olivia asked. Ella wasn't surprised that this question came.  
"Olivia, I've already told you everything I know."  
Olivia's face went to sad. When seeing it, Ella said, "Olivia, today is your birthday. There's nothing you can be sad about."  
Luckily Ella had finished dressing Olivia, because she zoomed out of the room as soon she heard "birthday".

When Ella came into the kitchen, Olivia zoomed around while repeating "Today is my birthday!"  
Ella caught Olivia and said, "You get no presents if you don't calm down."  
Olivia suddenly went silent.

The Creevies, Ella and Olivia had been walking around in the park. Ella had given Olivia some crayons and a notebook as birthday present. Now Olivia had to be dragged along if you wanted to go somewhere else, because she tried to get everything into the notebook  
Mrs Creevy said smiling, "It was a bad idea to give that girl that notebook."  
"It might also mean that she could be doing good at school. Her parents had put her into school a year earlier," her husband responded.  
Suddenly a man appeared in Ella's sight.  
"Oscar!" Olivia screamed. She ran to him letting the notebook and the crayons fall and jumped onto them.  
"It's good to see that you're Ok, Olivia," Oscar said, smiling. He then turned to Mr and Mrs Creevy.  
"Any new information about Chloe, Oscar?" Mr Creevy asked.  
"Yes," Oscar said. "I have the custody of Chloe and Olivia. Chloe is in hospital for one night, but it's nothing serious. I can barely feed myself with the money I have."  
"So you agree that they live with us?" Mr Creevy said.  
"Yes, that would be the best option. Olivia mustn't get used to a new environment so fast."

When they were home without Oscar, Ella went into her bedroom. She was happy that Chloe was Ok and could live with them. She entered and looked on her bed. A snow owl sat on Ella's bed.  
"Who's the owl?" came Olivia's voice from behind.  
Ella realized that she hadn't introduced Hedwig to Olivia. "That's Hedwig, Harry's owl. Wizards communicate like this with each other. I wonder what Harry did this time."  
Hedwig had a letter and a packet warped in paper. On the packet stood Olivia and on the letter Ella. Since when did Harry send Olivia birthday presents?  
Ella took both the packet and the letter and opened the letter. The letter read:  
 _Hello Ella,_ _  
_ _if you're curious why I sent Hedwig, the reason is that Ron had suggested that I give a book to Olivia. I've found the book in Diagon Alley and it contains several good night stories for children. Since you've said that Olivia is five if I'm right, I thought it might be appropriate for her. It also might help you getting through._ _  
_ _It's a new copy of the book. I've sent Hedwig with a permission to Diagon Alley to retrieve the money from our vault shortly after it came with your letter and said she should stay til her birthday. I hope it is a good book for her and you. I have a request. Make her life as nice as possibl_ _e._  
 _Love, Harry._  
Ella smiled. Harry was nice even that he never met Olivia. She gave the present to Olivia and said, "This is for you."  
"From who?" Olivia responded  
"Harry. It surprised me a bit that he bought a birthday present for you."  
Olivia's eyes widened. "Really?"  
Ella smiled and nodded  
In that moment Dennis and Colin came into the room. "Do you give another birthday present to Olivia?" Denis asked.  
"Yes. This one is from Harry."  
"He should know that he only knows you of us five," Colin said.  
"I'll tell him that. But do you want that Hedwig flies back so fast? I think Hedwig can use a good night."  
"It's Ok. Hedwig can calm down. But you still have to write him."  
"I'll do it."  
She turned to Olivia and saw the present paper in front of her and the book in the hands.  
"I think we've found something Olivia doesn't let loose so far, Colin," Ella said.  
"What?" Colin and Dennis asked.


	11. Chapter Ten

Colin and Denis turned to Olivia. By that time she had been a fourth of the book.  
"No way she read it this fast," Colin and Denis said in unison.  
"She's a fast reader for her age. I struggle a bit to hold with her. It might come from the Dursleys that I read slower than average."

 _Dear Harry,_ _  
_ _I've gotten your letter and Olivia's present,_ The Tales of Beedle the Bard _. She had read the whole book before I managed to get it out of her hands. She wanted that I read one of the stories in it,_ The tale of the three Brothers _, as goodnight story. I think we have a future know-it-all._ _  
_ _There have been some success with Chloe and Olivia. Their brother has called the authorities to check the circumstances and their father went mad. The custody was removed from them and put into their brother's care. But he barely keeps himself above water, let alone one five and one eleven year old. His decision was to put them in the care of the Creevies._ _  
_ _I know you're a bit mad at me because I didn't tell it earlier. It just was getting used to a new life style._ _  
_ _Bye, Ella._  
Ella put the letter in an envelope and looked up. Hedwig prepared to launch and tried to get the letter out of Ella's hand. Ella giggled.  
"Do you really want to do this, Hedwig?" Ella asked.  
Hedwig looked as if to say, _Am I not allowed to fly?_ Ella sighted.  
"Your enthusiasm scares me, Hedwig. Bring this letter to my brother," Ella said.  
Ella let Hedwig get the letter and Hedwig launched off the table into the night. Ella looked a while after the owl, then turned to Olivia. Olivia was sleeping with a smile on her lips. Ella couldn't explain why, but the situation made her feel warm around her heart. She walked over to Olivia's bed. She wished some of the hair out of the face of the five year old and stroke the face. "Sweet dreams, Olivia," Ella said.  
A moment later Ella decided to go into her own bed. As soon she closed her eyes, she fell into a dreamless sleep.

The next day when Ella came into the classroom, she heard a scream followed by something hitting her and a ball of brown hair blocking her sight.  
"Ella, I am so happy I cannot explain it in words … Oscar managed to get Olivia out of the house and I'm not in their custody. He said he'd bring Olivia to someone trustfully. I hope she's Ok. They've locked me into my room and I thought I'd never – never – ever get out of it. They gave me only small portions of food to eat-"  
"Chloe, calm down and loosen this hug. You're squeezing me to death," Ella said.  
Chloe loosened the hug and stepped back. Her breath was faster than normal. A second later she saw Colin and jumped at him.  
"Wow, Chloe, calm down first," Colin said.

"I won't, Colin," Chloe responded and stepped back, still struggling to get the breath under control and with a wide smile on her face. "Did you hear something about my sister, Colin?"  
This time Ella talked.  
"She's with us and she's fine. Yesterday was her birthday -"  
Ella was interrupted by a scream out of Chloe's mouth. "Olivia's birthday. I forgot it. She wouldn't forgive it."  
"Calm down, Chloe. She had a great birthday and I hope she'll do that," Colin said.  
"Did someone give her books?" Chloe asked.  
"Yes. Did you notice that she likes informative books?" Ella asked.  
Ella definitely caught Chloe off guard with that question. "Informative books? No. Why?"  
"She read my copy of _Hogwarts: A History._ "  
"Your … No, you're kidding. She never reads books like that."  
"I've heard you and Olivia talking and it sounded like she had it out of that book, Ella." Colin said.  
"And she wants to know everything, Chloe."  
"Don't tell me that I've a know-it-all as sister, Ella," Chloe said. From the facial expression of the other two she knew that her sister was a know-it-all.

It was Christmas day after all. Colin, Dennis, Olivia, Chloe and Ella had somehow found together as an inseparable team of friends and siblings. They did everything together whenever possible and you saw Colin, Chloe and Ella sitting close to each other in the classroom.  
Ella wasn't expecting any presents from anybody while the others did. She sat on a chair in a corner. Chloe said, "Ella, look after presents for you. I'm sure there are some."  
"I don't get any," Ella said when an owl with packages came through the window into the room. Ella looked shocked at the owl. She easily recognized it as Hedwig.  
" _No way_ that are all his presents."  
Ella went to Hedwig. She carried three packages and a letter. Ella could instantly say that something was different seeing the letter. She freed Hedwig from the mail and carried her into Ella's room. "Sleep, Hedwig, if you want," Ella said. Hedwig hooted in response and with her last energy she flew onto the table.  
Ella went into the living room. She saw that one of the presents was already opened and Olivia had a copy of _Fantastic Beast and Where To Find them_ in her hands. Chloe noticed that Ella had entered the room again and said, "Olivia jumped onto the presents and opened hers. The question is, why would Harry send her presents?"  
"I cannot explain Harry's actions to myself, Chloe. He already sent Olivia a birthday present," Ella said.  
Chloe's eyes widened. "What did you say?"  
"I said, he sent Olivia a birthday present, Chloe."  
"You're kidding, Ella."  
"She's not," Colin said. Chloe sat onto her chair, stunned.  
"He never met her. _Never_."  
"You're right. I'll tell you, boys can be sometimes very confusing, Chloe."  
Colin grimaced at the comment. "That's not always true!" he said.  
"I've said they're _sometimes_ confusing, Colin."  
"Anyway, my parents want you to celebrate Christmas with them, Chloe. Someone else from the neighborhood comes around. I haven't seen her since summer."  
"Why didn't you see her since summer? Does she go to a boarding school?" Ella asked.  
"Yeah. She didn't say the name of the school but somehow she was accepted very late to it," Colin replied.  
"Somehow I have the feeling, the school's name begins with H," Ella said.  
Colin's eyes widened. "I didn't think of that."

* * *

It's feeling good to know that the story was put online about two months ago and already has over seven hundred views.  
I'd appreciate if you review more or send me a PM. If you want to have an Idea of yours in this story, tell it and I would consider it to put it into the story.


	12. Chapter Eleven

On December 30th, Dennis told that his friend had returned home from a visit to their ill grandmother who died shortly afterwards. The already bad mood dropped further down.  
The reason that the mood was already bad before the message was that Chloe's parents had managed to get the custody of her and Olivia back on December 29th and dragged them home. They hadn't heard anything from Oscar either, but it was most likely that it was due to the shock of his parents regaining the custody.  
To their surprise a police car stopped in front of their house and told them about that they had been notified that the Creevy parents had kidnapped three children and abused them in addition to their own two. The two officers were surprised that none of the three children showed significant signs of mistreatment – except Ella who was underweight and small for her age, but it still could be connected to Ella's behavior and Ella still growing up.  
The Police only believed fully their story because they had one child psychologist with them and said that the reaction of the three children seemed to be too genuine to be made up. They also promised to stop at the Dursleys.

On December 31st Colin was excited since he would see his friend for the first time for some time. Ella, who couldn't bear his excitement, got out of the house and strode around alone in the streets.  
She had visiting the places with Colin before so she knew her way around in his neighborhood.  
She found a free bench in the park and sat down. She sat there for a while when a girl with bushy brown hair came with her parents. Ella had a feeling that she should be familiar to her and reading the face of that girl's face it was the same on her side.  
Ella stood up and walked to that girl. While moving her hand forward she said, "I'm Ella. And what is your name?"  
Both the girl and her parents looked surprised.  
"I-I'm Hermione. Nobody had e-ever walked t-to me like you," the girl replied.  
Ella somehow had the feeling that the Hermione standing in front of her was the same Hermione Harry had been talking about.  
"Where are your parents, Ella?" Hermione said after catching herself.  
"My parents are dead."  
"Oh," Hermione's parents said while Hermione's face twitched.  
"Have you ever heard of someone named Harry Potter?"  
Her mum said, "Do you even know if she's a witch?"  
A big grin formed on Ella's face. "Is your last name by coincidence Granger?"  
"How did-" Hermione's dad began, but he broke off and stood there with wide eyes. Her mom had the same facial expression  
"What's wrong with both of you?" Ella asked.  
"We didn't believe Hermione that the famous Harry Potter had a sister."  
"Oh, yes, her. I wonder where she's now," Ella responded.  
"I'm looking forward with our friendship, Ella Potter. You seem to be a nice character," Hermione responded, smiling.

For the next hour Ella and Hermione talked about their lives. Since Ella hadn't been in the wizarding world, Hermione had an unfair advantage over her. But Hermione was pretty much cut off from the Muggle World and her best friend Colin Creevy. It was quite a shock for Hermione that Ella knew him, but she took in well that she lived with the Creevies.  
"I'm meeting him with his family this evening. We wanted to have at least this New Year's Eve with each other before I completely vanish into the wizarding world," Hermione said when she had calmed down.  
"He and Dennis could be wizards," Ella responded.  
"Really? And who's Dennis?" Hermione asked.  
"Dennis is Colin's small brother."  
"Oh."  
It soon came to Ella's aunt and uncle. It was a topic she didn't want to talk about, but Ella was happy not to know where the Dursleys were.  
"When we were younger they actually hit Harry for outperforming Dudley in school and threatened to do the same when I outperformed him," Ella said.  
"What?" That Hermione was shocked about it was an understatement. "There's no way they could have done that to you!"  
"Believe me, Hermione."  
"I believe you, Ella," Hermione said. It seemed that she did it a bit reluctant.

Later that day, when Ella had talked to Colin and Dennis that she met Hermione, the three with the Creevy parents went over to the Granger household to celebrate New Year. Ella hadn't had this much fun celebrating this occasion. Ella was happy that she had a female friend that knew about the wizarding world. Hermione had promised to send Ella letters.

The days to Hermione's departure went in a blur. Ella and Hermione talked with each other most of the time since she had no other choice for girl talk they did. Hermione had given Ella some basic introduction to the magic she already learned and practiced the theory of the spells. When the last day came Hermione and Ella didn't want to let go from each other, but the Granger parents somehow managed to break them apart.  
"Look for the name Nicolas Flamel for me, Ella," Hermione said when she went to her parents to drive to Kings Cross.  
"I'll do it, Hermione."  
"You two are as close as two sisters can get," Mrs Granger said smiling.  
"Mum! You're embarrassing me!"  
"I have to join your mum there, Hermione."  
"Not you too, Dad!" Hermione looked shocked at her parents.  
She turned to Ella. "Bye Ella."  
"Bye, Hermione. Remember to tell my brother who you met in your holidays and write me."

The following day Ella struggled to comprehend that her best friend was leaving to Hogwarts and was a bit unmotivated. She was looking through the pages of a book when something caught her eye.  
 _Nicolas Flamel was an alchemist of the fourteenth century. He managed to make crucial advancements in healing persons, such like creating the painless portion – which was his most important advancement. Though the portion was mostly replaced by nowadays medicine, it is still used by a small community of estimated five thousand people spread around the world. Where, when and under which circumstances he and his w_ _ife_ _Perenelle_ _died are not known. Rumors fly around how he got this much money, one of them containing something called_ Philosopher's Stone _._  
Ella's mouth stood open. This book could give Harry and Hermione a head start into the subject.

Ella didn't sleep well that night. She wanted to tell her brother about that but had no way doing that. She fell asleep around one o'clock and woke up later when an owl picked on her.  
"Go a- _Hedwig!_ "  
Ella instantly jumped up and wrote a letter. It read:  
 _Dear brother of mine,_  
 _I've met Hermione over the winter holidays and talked with her. She's a nice girl. It was hard for me letting her go back to Hogwarts. Don't laugh at me, it's true.  
She mentioned that you three were searching for Nicolas Flamel. I've been looking through a book where something about him caught my eye._ _It might give you a boost in your investigation._  
 _He's an alchemist of the fourteenth century_ _. There was nothing written about his death. It also mentioned the_ Philosopher's Stone. _The best thing is that you look around in the Hogwarts library for further investigation since I assume that I've got a Muggle book into my hands. Write back when you have found out more about him._  
 _Good luck, your sister._  
 _PS From how I noticed her acting around when you were mentioned, it might be that Hermione is loving you._

* * *

I'm thinking to adopt the Story _Harry's Return_ from Makotochi (455558). The story Id is 3121989. I want to hear your Ideas about it

I am struggling to get the promised one thousand words per chapter so I'm planing to change it a bit for the second book. There you have several point of views, not only Ella's

I've several Ideas on how the story will go on:  
\- Hermione and Harry marry each other (That was not obvious after that chapter *cough, cough* Ella's letter to her brother *cough, cough*)  
\- Dumbledore trying to manipulate Harry  
\- Dumbledore trying to force Harry into a marriage with Ginny  
\- There's a marriage contract  
\- Dumbledore doesn't tell Harry is richer than he thinks.  
\- Dumbledore gives the Weasleys Harry's money  
\- Dumbledore ignores the last will of Harry's parents  
\- In the will stands that Harry and Ella shouldn't go to the Dursleys  
\- Someone busts him (Wow, that came unexpected...)  
\- One of the Granger parents knowing Lily  
\- The will states that Granger as a possibility to take Harry's and Ella's guardianship.  
\- The Dursleys or the Smith parents (Smith is Chloe's last name if you have forgotten it) getting arrested for Child abuse  
Tell me in the reviews what you think about it.

One last thing: I cannot decide who to choose for Ella's godparents and Harry's godmother. That are my possibilities:  
\- Augusta Longbottom  
\- Andromeda Tonks  
\- Sirius  
\- Remus  
\- Severus Snape  
This are my arguments  
\- Sirius and Remus are good friends of James. Sirius is already Harry's godfather, so why not Ella's? On the other hand, if Sirius is already responsible for Harry, then why doesn't Remus get Ella's godfather?  
\- Snape because of his love to Lily Evans. I'm imagining it that Lily convinces James to give it to Snape


	13. Chapter Twelve

Four days after Hermione left, Hedwig came with a response letter. She didn't recognize the handwriting, but wasn't surprised since she didn't knew Hermione's. The letter read:  
 _Hello Ella,_  
 _You've written the last letter to Harry about Nicolas Flamel. We searched in the library for him and found something about him with more ease thanks to your help. The_ _rumor_ _about the_ Philosopher's Stone _is true. You have definitely read a Muggle book because the Wizard books state that Nicolas Flamel is still alive.  
Harry had the feeling that the name was familiar but couldn't say why until we had a card about the Headmaster._  
 _Harry had accepted well that we met and said that you've told him. Harry is now acting strange around me as if he knew something about me I didn't realize. He has hidden the letter carefully which he didn't do since he revealed the secret. Did you tell something about me that might make him uneasy? I don't remember telling you any secrets.  
_ _Harry had been acting strange before he got your letter and dragged me off into an empty classroom as soon as he had seen me. He's not trusting Ron and Professor Dumbledore any more and made me promise not to tell one of them about it.  
_ _I don't know if I believe Harry or not._ _Ron said – Harry had confirmed it – that he was in Gringotts around New Year, but Harry made me promise to not tell it anyone. I think he might make an exception for you._  
 _Bye, Hermione._  
Ella was a bit curious. Why would Harry act strange around Hermione? And his behavior before he got her letter was already strange. Harry wouldn't do anything without any good reason.  
Then it hit Ella. Harry's behavior could be explained that Harry needed a girl he could protect. Or he is in love with Hermione, which isn't too far fetched since Hermione said Harry had been acting weird after receiving her letter. And Harry must have found out something that made him believe Ron was untrustworthy.  
Ella had to write Harry and Hermione a letter.  
Suddenly Dennis busted into Ella's room.  
"Ella, Breakfast is … What's wrong?" he asked.  
"Harry is not trusting one of his friends and is driving Hermione from that friend. It's not him."  
"Why?" Dennis asked.  
"He had cared about every friend he had and always had a reason for not trusting someone. He had dragged Hermione into an empty classroom and told about his thrust issue without any reason. Harry must have found something serious."  
Dennis stood there with an open mouth and wide open eyes. Ella had to smile.  
"Could you tell your parents that I'm not feeling well, Dennis?"  
Dennis nodded and went out.

Mrs Creevy came into Ella's room a few minutes later. She sat on her bed with her head hanging down.  
"Dennis had told me that Harry isn't trusting one of his friends. Is that true?"  
Ella nodded. "It's something more serious. Harry was in the wizarding bank around New Year and he hadn't _even_ written me about it. They must have revealed something to him that is definitely something serious and he doesn't want to let the information slip into wrong hands. Harry had always a reason when he didn't trust someone. He didn't state anything."  
From the expression of Mrs Creevy Ella could see that she also thought it was something serious.  
"Do you believe it is something more serious, Mrs Creevy?"  
Mrs Creevy knelt down in front of Ella and rubbed Ella's legs just above her knees. "There must be something that made at least some impact on his world, Ella. Write your brother and ask what it is. And head up and smile, Ella."  
Ella moved her head up and restrained to fall around Mrs Creevy's neck. Mrs Creevy somehow managed to comfort her, something only Harry had managed. "I'll write him."  
"And one thing, Ella. Will you come down and eat something?"

Ella was happy that she had someone that could at least comfort her like Harry and also hurt her since it remembered her of Harry – who was attending at Hogwarts with a friend that might not be trustworthy.  
Mrs Creevy managed to get Ella to eat several slices of bread with delicious jam. After the breakfast Ella was satisfied and went into her room. She instantly started to write the letter to Harry.  
 _Dear Harry,_  
 _Hermione had written me about your progress with the research and I'm happy that my research had shot yours forward. How did you manage to find the right books?_  
 _Anyway she also wrote that you were away around New Year and didn't trust Ron and Professor Dumbledore. Why didn't you write anything about you being away? You know you can trust me, Harry._  
 _Bye, Ella_

Only two days later Hedwig was back again. Ella saw she carried two letters and only managed to get her own untied before Hedwig made signs of wanting to take off again. Ella stepped back and Hedwig flew away.  
"Wow, that was a short stop," Ella said to herself. She read the letter Harry had written.  
 _Ella, I'm sorry I didn't inform you. Since Hermione had written you I'm trusting her more and we came closer. Ron tries to separate us, but it is our final decision who we are with._ _We've started to practice some advanced spells._ _I fear that this letter is read by the wrong person and might do something against me._  
 _Bye, Harry._  
"Ella, have you gotten a letter from Harry?"  
Ella flinched. How did Colin manage to sneak into her room?  
"Yes, you're right. He's trusting Hermione and that is a good sign."  
"I'm happy to have someone who can help me to get comfortable into the wizarding world, Ella."  
"I'm on your side, Colin. But I have to keep him from doing something foolish."  
"If Harry trust Hermione, then you can trust her that he'll keep her out of trouble if you tell her."  
Ella looked up smiling.  
"Great Idea, Colin."

* * *

It seems that it turns for the worse. Does Harry trust Ron enough till the end of the school year that they go into the forbidden corridor?  
I want to have at least five reviews about my Ideas in the last chapter and two about the story adoption till I post the second book.  
I've changed Olivia's age. Before everyone jump back, she is six instead of five. It was a correction for the plot.

One thing: Over one thousand views? WOW! *collapses* I didn't really believe it that it could go this far.(14:54 UTC, 2017-09-08)


	14. Chapter Thirteen

Several weeks went by and Ella stayed in contact with Hermione. Hermione told much about the wizarding world and Ella gave that information to Colin and Dennis – who she thought were wizards. She'd seen both doing accidental magic like she'd done. Also Dennis had managed to hide Ella's true identity hidden from the Dursleys.  
Hermione also wrote improvements in the friendship between Harry and Ron. Harry apparently had mostly forgiven for what he had found out close to New Year – which he wouldn't tell Ella or anyone else.  
Ella had problems understanding her brother's actions. Harry always had a good reason for not thrusting someone – and Ron was gaining Harry's thrust after it broke for something Harry wouldn't explain. Hermione was trying to persuade Harry to tell either her or Ella – without success. Boys could be sometimes so complicated.  
Ella was currently sitting in her room and was doing her homework. She had changed her behavior after she met Hermione. She was doing it once properly and then only good enough to get no problems with the Dursleys – meaning worse than Dudley. One teacher tried to persuade her a few days ago to give him her true homework after she accidentally gave him the better one.  
Suddenly an owl came flying in carrying a letter. Ella looked up and said, "Hello owl, is this letter for me?"  
The owl hooted in approval. Ella immediately separated the letter from the owl, who immediately flew outside after Ella finished. Ella rolled her eyes at the owls behavior. She read the letter.  
 _Dear Mrs Potter,_  
 _We require your presence for the correct identification of your relation to Harry Potter at ten o'clock on Saturday._  
 _The entrance to Diagon Alley is in_ The Leaky Cauldron _. The barkeeper Tom will be informed about your business and show you there._  
 _Yours sincerely_  
 _Ragnok, Head of Gringotts_  
Ella's eyes widened. The meeting was tomorrow and she wasn't prepared for it at all. How will she survive that.

On Saturday, Mr Creevy was driving Ella to London to _The Leaky Cauldron_. She was very nervous. It was the first time for her to see magic after Hagrid had dropped Harry off in Privet Drive.  
Ella saw the sign for _The Leaky Cauldron._  
"There," she said and pointed at it.  
"Wh- oh," Mr Creevy responded. He stopped the car and he and Ella exited.  
Ella opened the door. A wall of smoke came out of the pub and hit Ella. She coughed.  
"This isn't the place I wouldn't want my children go to," Mr Creevy said. Ella couldn't do anything but agree to it.  
She went further in and looked around.  
"Hello," someone said. Ella's head turned to a man, who must have said it. _This is the barkeeper_ , Ella thought.  
She went to the man and gave him her letter.  
"Ah, Mrs Potter, I awaited you. I have just one question. Do you trust your companion?" the man asked, looking at Mr Creevy.  
"Yes I do," Ella said.

* * *

Yes I know, this chapter is shorter than my aimed 1000 word per chapter, but I'm revising this story and aim for 1500 to 2000 words per chapters. I would apprechiate to get some Ideas from you.  
One information: Who hadn't figured out the review-box, you don't have to have an actual account to review


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